Physics World Particle & Nuclear Briefing 2026

Welcome to this Physics World Particle & Nuclear Briefing which includes news, features and opinion about the latest developments and issues in these two areas.

In this issue we take a look at progress towards CERN’s next-generation particle collider. The current front-runner is the Future Circular Collider (FCC) – a huge 91 km circumference electron-positron collider that will cost about $18bn and be complete towards the end of the 2040s.

Late last year, the project received a significant boost when private donors, including the Breakthrough Prize Foundation, stumped up $1bn towards its construction.Despite such progress, however, physicist and historian Michael Riordan points out in this briefing that the worsening geopolitics of a fragmenting world order could make funding and building the FCC a risky proposition.

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