As far as the tile roofs, they last a long time. It isn't the tile that is the issue, it's the felt (or paper) underneath that gets replaced. Mine is 25 years old, has not been replaced yet. Some neighbors have had theirs redone, but many have not as yet. 04-06-2011, 12:00 AM.
Particle Accelerators Could Be Used to Produce Energy (and Plutonium) Particle accelerators, which are not renowned for their real-world applications, could in fact be used to produce energy, according to a 34-year-old research paper that resurfaced this week.
How an accelerator works. Electric fields and radiofrequency cavities accelerate particles inside accelerators, while powerful magnets focus or steer the particle beams. Accelerators were invented in the 1930s to provide energetic particles to investigate the structure of the atomic nucleus.