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That "circular bit of road" is the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the second highest-powered particle accelerator on the planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_Heavy_Ion_Collide...

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Awesome! I had a good nose about the LHC when I was there a few years ago. I'm guessing that site isn't quite so enthusiastic about visitors?

The dump load for one of my wind turbines is a pair of 22Ω resistors recovered from one of CERN's "free for all" scrap piles :-)

Brookhaven does classified research and access to the site is pretty restricted. The last time I visited there were guards with assault rifles at the gates. In comparison, Fermilab used to (and may still) let you walk onto the campus and wander about.

It's a Department of Energy facility. The primary purpose of the DOE is to further the development of nuclear weapons.

"Was" It shut down earlier this year.

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