*Cue exasperated eye-rolling* Oh, give me a break. It's basically the latest round of fear-mongering that always seems to accompany the start-up of a new accelerator. In fact, one of the co-plaintiffs is none other than "former nuclear safety officer" Walter Wagner, who spearheaded the attempt to create panic surrounding Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. News flash to Wagner: RHIC has been operating for a few years now. The world has not yet ended.
Wagner's concerns are nothing new to anyone who has followed the development of the LHC's design and construction over the last decade or more. They have been fully and fairly considered by the best scientific minds in the high-energy physics community, who take their responsibility for safety very seriously. And, in fact, an updated safety assessment (the last document was released in 2003) has already been completed. Why bring the courts into it at all? Because Wagner refuses to accept the scientific consensus on the issue.
The LHC has enough problems to overcome this year. The last thing it needs is a frivolous lawsuit.
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