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UNITED States and European officials this week signed an historic agreement bringing $531 million to the world's largest particle-smashing experiment based in Geneva. It is the first such agreement between CERN and the US government. The US Department of Energy will provide $200 million for components and materials to be used in the construction of the Large Hadron Collider, a massive accelerator which will collide oncoming beams of protons travelling close to the speed of light. The US will also provide components costing $331 million for massive detectors for the accelerators.

The LHC has already had funds from Japan, Canada, Russia and India, as well as from CERN's 19 member states.