Safety in an international work environment: CERN

The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) has recently completed a new accelerator. The installation of this accelerator and its experimental areas represents an example of harmonization of safety rules in supranational areas, as CERN is an international organization and the machine is housed in a tunnel of 26.7 km circumference, of which 20 km is on French territory and 6.7 km on Swiss territory. The work was carried out by a large number of firms from all over Europe, CERN staff and physicists and technicians from all over the world, and represented almost 4 million working hours. The safety organization chosen and applied with the agreement of the two host-State safety authorities is described and the resulting application, including the results in terms of accident statistics, from the installation of the machine, experimental areas and detectors are presented.