Originally Posted by blueshift

What hostility? The project has and is constantly being questioned. Scientists at Fermilab have done some recalculations concerning the mass of the Higgs boson and calculate that they might be able to realize a discovery at energies that the present Tevatron can realize. Competition is how checks and balances exist in particle physics and that is how the government keeps tabs on wasted monies. Study the November Revolution of 1974. The results of that competition was one of the main reasons the internet exists.

"mildy frightened"?

Just what are you frightened about? The particle physics world has been very blunt with the public. Nuclear weapons are definitely the greatest fear the uninvolved public has from their labs. Any new particle realized at higher energies will decay too quickly to do any such false notion as multiplication and spreading. Nuclear weapons rely on fission and chain reaction with the atmosphere's gases. There will not be any atmospheric gases present and there are none present in any of the existing particle accelerators. The beamlines are sealed in vaccums that the beams cannot protrude. Their energies are too low.

The masses used at the LHC will be incredibly smaller than the mass used for nuclear weapons. It takes a freight train to move a nuke and the bomber designed to transport one has to be enormous. (Realize that I am not talking about atomic bombs here but am talking about nuclear weapons.)

The energies at the LHC are going to be larger than Fermilab but not by that much.

Why aren't you concerned about the particle accelerator right in your living room (the TV)? It is much less controlled with much less applied science that organizes it and it gives off more radons right into your room than the LHC will.

Done? This tells me you are not questioning the LHC or anyone on this thread at all. "Done" implies that all one has to do is cross examine you enough and you will quit. If this means a lot to you, then why don't you take up physics and math and cross examine the stubborn scientific establishment that you perceive in its own language? Scientists listen to that language.