Weasel shuts down Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider under the Swiss-French border has been temporarily immobilised by a weasel, a spokesman says.

This file photo shows a view of the Large Hadron Collider in its tunnel at the European Particle Physics Laboratory, CERN, near Geneva. Source: AAP

One of the physics world's most complex machines has been immobilised - temporarily - by a weasel.

Spokesman Arnaud Marsollier says the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN outside of Geneva, has suspended operations because a weasel invaded a transformer that helps power the machine and set off an electrical outage on Friday.

Authorities say the incident was one of several small glitches that will delay plans to restart the $US4.4 billion ($A5.77 billion) collider by a few days.

Marsollier said on Friday that the weasel died - and little remains of it.

Officials of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym CERN, have been gearing up for new data from the 27-kilometre circuit that runs underground on the Swiss-French border.