CERN's complex of accelerators

CERN’s accelerator complex is a succession of particle accelerators that can reach increasingly higher energies. Each accelerator boosts the speed of a beam of particles, before injecting it into the next one in the sequence.

The complex also includes the Antiproton Decelerator and the ISOLDE facility and feeds the CNGS project and the CLIC test area (CTF3).

The control centre

The CERN control centre combines all the control rooms for the laboratory’s 8 accelerators, the cryogenic distribution system and the technical infrastructure.

There are 39 operation stations for 4 different areas – the Large Hadron Collider, the Super Proton Synchrotron, the Proton Synchrotron complex and the technical infrastructure. It can accommodate up to 13 operators, each assisted by a team of experts.