Iran to Do Atom Smasher Experiment
The Iranian government has signed an agreement that will allow its scientists to participate in experiments using the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider, being built at Europe's particle physics laboratory.
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GENEVA (AP) - Four Iranian researchers will join 1,800 other scientists working in the 17-mile circular tunnel laboratory under the Swiss-French border, known by its French acronym CERN, the facility said Thursday.
Iranian industry will contribute equipment worth $378,000 for the construction of a massive experiment, which will include a particle detector to study high energy collisions between protons in the Large Hadron Collider, according to a CERN statement.
The experiment is aimed at understanding why subatomic particles have mass and other questions about the makeup of matter and the universe.
``The answers to these questions will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe, its origins and its future,' CERN said in the statement.
The United States and Israel have expressed concern that Iran, which has a nuclear weapon program, is seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said information obtained by a scientist working at CERN could not be used to make a nuclear weapons.
CERN has nothing to do with ``nuclear weapons design or fissile explosions,' said IAEA spokesman David Kyd. ``There's no congruence between the two areas of study.'
CERN has 20 European member countries and also receives support from other nations, including the United States, which is giving $530 million toward the construction of the collider.
This is believed to be the first time the Iranian government has signed an agreement to support the laboratory, said Roger Cashmore, director of research.
A number of individual Iranian scientists have worked on earlier experiments at CERN, however, ``because we're an open laboratory,' Cashmore said.
CERN has 7,000 researchers from more than 500 institutions in 80 countries.
``Pure science has always brought together scientists united by a common desire to learn more about their universe,' the CERN statement said.
Iranian industry will contribute equipment worth $378,000 for the construction of a massive experiment, which will include a particle detector to study high energy collisions between protons in the Large Hadron Collider, according to a CERN statement.
The experiment is aimed at understanding why subatomic particles have mass and other questions about the makeup of matter and the universe.
``The answers to these questions will have a profound impact on our understanding of the universe, its origins and its future,' CERN said in the statement.
The United States and Israel have expressed concern that Iran, which has a nuclear weapon program, is seeking to produce weapons of mass destruction.
The International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna said information obtained by a scientist working at CERN could not be used to make a nuclear weapons.
CERN has nothing to do with ``nuclear weapons design or fissile explosions,' said IAEA spokesman David Kyd. ``There's no congruence between the two areas of study.'
CERN has 20 European member countries and also receives support from other nations, including the United States, which is giving $530 million toward the construction of the collider.
This is believed to be the first time the Iranian government has signed an agreement to support the laboratory, said Roger Cashmore, director of research.
A number of individual Iranian scientists have worked on earlier experiments at CERN, however, ``because we're an open laboratory,' Cashmore said.
CERN has 7,000 researchers from more than 500 institutions in 80 countries.
``Pure science has always brought together scientists united by a common desire to learn more about their universe,' the CERN statement said.
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