The Large Hadron Collider has today claimed the record for world’s highest energy particle accelerator.

CERN, Europe’s high-energy physics laboratory near Geneva, says the LHC has accelerated its twin proton beams to 1.18 TeV, smashing the previous record of 0.98 TeV held by the US Tevatron collider.

However, the LHC is still running with relatively few protons in the accelerator. In the coming the weeks this will be ramped up to increase the number of collisions when the beams are crossed.

“It is fantastic. However, we are continuing to take it step by step, and there is still a lot to do before we start physics in 2010,” says Rolf Heuer, CERN’s Director General (press release). “I’m keeping my champagne on ice until then.”

The first actual physics at the LHC will hopefully begin next year, when two 3.5 TeV beams will be smashed into each other for a 7 TeV collision.

Image: CERN control room earlier today / CERN