SCI-TECH

CERN votes to admit Israel as newest member

The Associated Press Published Thursday, December 12, 2013 3:35PM EST

An amateur photographer takes a picture in the assembly room of the elements of the LHC (large hadron collider) at the European Particle Physics laboratory (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland in this photo taken Aug. 7, 2010. (AP / Keystone / Salvatore Di Nolfi)

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GENEVA - The governing council of the world's top particle physics lab has unanimously voted to accept Israel as a full member.

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, says Israel will be admitted as a full member -- the first non-European country to achieve that -- once it formally notifies UNESCO that it has ratified the CERN Convention.

CERN's director general, Rolf Heuer, said in a statement Thursday that Israel, which obtained observer status in 1991 and then became an associate member in 2011, will become the 21st member nation to join as a full member.

The upgrade in status means it will have more access and say in the research, but also that it must contribute millions of dollars more each year.