The LHC has taken another big step on the road back to operation, reports today's CERN Bulletin. The whole accelerator is now being supercooled, with three of the LHC's eight sectors already at operating temperatures of 1.9 K (-271.3 degrees Celsius). In the first in a series of powering tests, scientists have begun putting electrical current back into the magnets of the three cold sectors. One sector has now been powered with the new Quench Detection System, and two other sectors are moving on to tests with higher current.
