Elon Musk offers to help dig CERN's new particle collider tunnel

The new accelerator will be four times larger than the 17-mile Large Hadron Collider.

Elon Musk's Boring Co is apparently considering a unique project as CERN prepares to build a new particle accelerator four times bigger than the Large Hadron Collider.

The LHC is the largest collider in the world, encased in a tunnel measuring 17 miles in circumference. The proposed "post-LHC" project, known as the Future Circular Collider,  will be 62 miles in circumference and achieve a 10-fold power increase.

"Director of CERN asked me about Boring Co building the new LHC tunnel when we were at the @royalsociety," Musk wrote on Twitter. "Would probably save several billion Euros."

Participating countries are expected to face a bill of more than $10 billion USD to build the collider, with even more money to be spent on future upgrades.

Boring Co is working to slash tunneling costs by an order of magnitude. The company hopes to build tunnel boring machines that are much faster than current TBMs, focusing on smaller diameter tubes than the voluminous tunnels with full-width driving lanes.