Parking the LHC proton train

Particle accelerators like the LHC require intricate beam dump systems to safely dispose of high-energy particles after each run. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is the world's most powerful particle accelerator. It hurtles hundreds of trillions of protons around a circular track at just under the speed of light. While each individual proton has the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito, the whole proton beam--a collection of 2500 bunches of particles--has as much energy as a 10-carriage railway...