This FCC should make it possible to take over from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and to advance science. Commissioning is expected in 2045, but some criticize a “dated” and energy-intensive project.
A 91 kilometer tunnel, buried 200 meters underground, between Geneva and Annecy, under Lake Geneva and the Rhône: this is Cern’s crazy project. The European Organization for Nuclear Research has just launched the feasibility study for its next particle accelerator. Code name: FCC, for future circular collider.
We knew its predecessor, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the large hadron collider, in French, this ring 27 kilometers in circumference where scientists collide protons at a speed close to that of light. This is how they discovered, ten years ago, a new particle: the Higgs boson. A real missing link in the standard model of physics that describes all the laws of the Universe – sorry. But now, the LHC is getting old, explains physicist Patrick Janot: “Let’s imagine that we illuminate a human being, what we will see are the buttons for example. If we increase the energy and we go to X-rays, we will be able to see the skeleton, the fractures. If we pass through an electron microscope, we will be able to begin to see the inside of the cells, and perhaps even the genetic diseases of the person. This is exactly what we are going to do with the 91 kilometer ring: we will increase the precision of the measurements by a factor of 100, and the energy by a factor of 10. We may be able to see the genetic diseases of the Higgs boson.”
This is where the FCC, a kind of Big Bang super-microscope, comes into play. CERN still has to validate the project, but it’s off to a good start: 100 million euros have already been put on the table for the feasibility study which will last two years. The construction will take more than ten years. If all goes well, commissioning is expected around 2045.
So much for energy sobriety
The works are titanic. You will have to dig. A lot. We are talking about almost 9 million cubic meters of earth to be excavated. What do we do with it? CERN still does not know. It will also be necessary to reach an agreement with local residents and municipalities to install the eight surface wells that provide access to the installation. And then there is the issue of energy. A 91 kilometer accelerator consumes energy. “You have to put things into perspective, CERN consumes electrical energy, it corresponds to about 40% of the city of Genevasays Jean-Paul Burnet, an engineer at CERN. Afterwards, with the FCC, it will still increase a little, but we remain in the same order of magnitude. CERN, it is the equivalent of a cruise liner in terms of energy consumption, I think it is acceptable for humanity, for a project such as this, to develop knowledge.”
Except that not everyone is of that opinion. Especially for a machine that we don’t know if it will give tangible results. Jean-Bernard Billeter is an engineer, he produced a report on the FCC for the environmental protection association Noé 21, and he criticizes a dated project at the time of energy sobriety. “In fact, it’s arrogating the right to say: make your efforts collectively, but in passing, we steal four terawatt hours a year from you, it’s worth it because we are the heirs of Galileo, of Einstein.. . But IIt’s been a while, you have to slow down!”
“Now is not the right time to come up with a machine even bigger than the biggest machine in the world.”
Jean-Bernard Billeterat franceinfo
The environmental issue is therefore important. But the stakes are also political: according to CERN, if Europe does not build the next largest particle accelerator in the world, China will.