THE PRESENT STATUS OF LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project was approved by the CERN Counc il in December 1994, The machine will provide proton-proton collisions with a centre of mass energy of 14 TeV and an unprecedented luminosit y of 10(34) cm(-2) s(-1), In order to achieve the design energy within the constraint of the 27 km circumference LEP tunnel, the magnet syst em must operate in superfluid helium below 2 K, with a dipole field of 8.4 Tesla, In addition, space limitations in the tunnel as well as co st considerations dictate a two-in one magnet design, where the two ri ngs are incorporated into the same cryostat, The machine will also pro vide heavy (Pb) ion collisions with a luminosity of 10(27) cm(-2) s(-1 ) using the existing CERN ion facility, Space will be kept above the L HC for the eventual reinstallation of components of the LEP machine to provide future e-p collisions if the physics case justifies it.