By setting a new energy record this morning, the Large Hadron Collider tripled its former peak performance. Physicists sent two proton beams (3.5-trillion-electron-volt punch) racing around the Large Hadron Collider's oval-shaped underground tunnel which is 17-mile-long, at about 5:20 a. m., local time, in Geneva, Switzerland.

The LHC has broken the previous record, which it set in last December, when the LHC smashed two 1.18-TeV beams to create a 2.36-TeV collision.

The two 3.5-trillion-electron-volt beams will be smashed together, so that an enormous 7-TeV energy collision takes place, which is about half of the collider's maximum energy level.

James Gillies, a spokesperson for the European Organization for Nuclear Research said, "We're all hoping [the collision] will happen in the next couple of weeks. If things continue carrying on the way they've been, that's a pretty safe estimate".

There is a plan to have a Large Hadron Collider, which lies under the French-Swiss border, which is run constantly for 18 to 24 months and after that is shut down for a year or more.

The engineers will also be allowed by the hiatus to prepare the collider for 14-TeV collisions, which will be the atom smasher's maximum operating energy.