article_snippet.sent: (CNN)The world's biggest and most powerful physics experiment is taking place as you read this.
article_snippet.sent: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator and the largest machine in the world, is ready for action following a two-year shutdown.
article_snippet.sent: After problems that delayed the restart in March, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) completed final tests, enabling the first beams to start circulating Sunday inside the LHC's 17 mile (27 km) ring.
article_snippet.sent: Operating accelerators for the benefit of the physics community is what CERN's here for," CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer said on the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)'s website.
article_snippet.sent: Today, CERN's heart beats once more to the rhythm of the LHC.
article_snippet.sent: the LHC generates up to 600 million particles per second, with a beam circulating for 10 hours, traveling more than 6 billion miles (more than 10 billion kilometers) -- the distance from Earth to Neptune and back again.
article_snippet.sent: At near light-speed, a proton in the LHC makes 11,245 circuits per second.
article_snippet.sent: It took thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians decades to devise and build the particle accelerator, housed in a tunnel between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountain range.
article_snippet.sent: CERN costs approximately three billion euros (about $3.3 billion), paid for by member countries of CERN and contributions by non-member nations.
article_snippet.sent: CERN also asserts that CERN guidelines for the protection of the environment and personnel comply with standards set by Swiss and French laws and a European Council Directive.
article_snippet.sent: After two years of effort, the LHC is in great shape," said CERN Director for Accelerators and Technology, Frédérick Bordry.
article_snippet.sent: But the most important step is still to come when CERN increase the energy of the beams to new record levels.
highlights_snippet.sent: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) begins again after a two-year shutdown .
  