The LHC, last among all of CERN’s accelerators, is resuming operation with beam while this issue goes to press. The year-end technical stop (YETS) started on 14 December 2015. During the 11 weeks of scheduled maintenance activities, several interventions have taken place in all of the accelerators and beamlines. They included the maintenance of the cryogenic system at several points; the replacement of 18 magnets in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS); an extensive campaign to identify and remove thousands of obsolete cables; the replacement of the LHC beam absorbers for injection (TDIs) that are used to absorb the SPS beam if a problem occurs, providing vital protection for the LHC; and 12 LHC collimators have been dismantled and reinstalled after modification of the vacuum chambers, which restricted their movement.
