Boston.com reports that the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is set to fire up the Large Hadron Collider.

The 27 km (17 mi) particle accelerator was launched last year, but suffered a failure from a faulty electrical connection, damaging 53 of the smasher’s 9,300 superconducting magnets. Repairs are now completed, and the plan is to begin injecting protons into the LHC this weekend, on the path to search for particles such as predicted-yet-unobserved Higgs Boson.

Some great photos courtesy of Associated Press, Getty Images, and Reuters Pictures. and Boston.com’s ‘The Big Picture‘:

Detail of some of the damage done to the LHC magnets in sector 3-4 on September 19th, 2008.