CERN is considering ‘idling’ the Large Hadron Collider in response toEurope’s energy crisis [Video]

Europe’s energy crisis is being felt by everyone – including the scientists working deep underground in Switzerland at the Large Hadron Collider.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, is even considering taking its particle accelerators offline.

This is due to the accelerators’ high energy demands, and the organisation’s desire to keep the region’s electricity grid stable.

However, the scientists do not want to shut down the Large Hadron Collider completely, so are drawing up plans to temporarily switch it to ‘idle’ mode.

‘It’s a voluntary action,’ CERN energy chair Serge Claudet told the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the action. 

‘You don’t want to break your toy.’

The news came after Gazprom, Russia’s state-run energy service, announced it would be indefinitely cutting off the natural gas supply through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany last Friday.

This is the main route used by Russia to export gas to Europe, and had been shut down for three days prior to …