World’s largest 62-mile ‘God particle’ collider plan shelved in China

China’s plan to build the Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC), a proposed 62-mile particle collider designed to study the Higgs boson with unprecedented precision, has been effectively stalled after it was excluded from the country’s upcoming five-year plan. Despite completing its full technical design reports by October 2025 and receiving positive international reviews, the multibillion-dollar project led by the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) in Beijing will not proceed immediately. The CEPC project, estimated to cost around US$5.1 billion and involving thousands of scientists globally, is now on hold as China explores other large science initiatives for 2026-2030. The CEPC team plans to resubmit the proposal in 2030 but may abandon the domestic project if Europe’s competing Future Circular Collider (FCC) gains approval first. The FCC, with a slightly smaller 56-mile ring but a significantly larger budget of US$18.4 billion, is expected to have its future