Russia builds particle accelerator

Deep underground, on the border between France and Switzerland, is a gigantic scientific machine.

The Large Hadron Collider, spanning 100m underground, is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles, in the hope of better understanding the universe.

Now Russian scientists plan to have a Hadron Collider as well.

While it will use 1000 times less energy that the European conterpart, the Superconductive Cryogenic Nuclotron is a series of pipes used to propel atomic particles at tremendous speed.

In seven years time this will be an integral part of Russia's Collider but the project has some controversial international partners, North Korea and Cuba among them.

Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from the Dubna Nuclear Research Facility near Moscow.