Scientists at the world’s largest atom smasher have released a blueprint for a much bigger successor that could help solve enigmas of physics, starting in the mid-2040s at a cost of about $16 billion.

Scientists at the world’s largest atom smasher have released a blueprint for a much bigger successor that could help solve remaining enigmas of physics.

The plans for the Future Circular Collider — a nearly 91-kilometer (56.5-mile) loop along the French-Swiss border and even below Lake Geneva — published late on Monday put the finishing details on a project roughly a decade in the making at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.