These folks know they are working with more unknowns than they care to admit. Thus the reason for the lack of coverage and why most people have no clue what this project is dealing with. In 1941, the U.S. detonated it’s first nuclear explosion. In 2008 the World will detonate it’s first nuclear Implosion. Basically what this thing will do will be to pack as much energy released from the first atomic bomb into an area the size of an atom. In my opinion the research isn’t about finding a supposed particle of physics, which it may/may not do. The real purpose is to create and sustain black holes for further research. Obviously, the reward for controlling the power of a black hole will be immense. But so will be the demise if it escapes and lingers unstoppable. Yes, this research will be the precurser to Warp drive mechanics, matter replication and indeed the possibility to recreate new life forms altogether. Harnessing the powers of a black hole is beyond most peoples imagination I suspect.
In 2008 the World will detonate it’s first nuclear Implosion. [on this scale]
In any case, no it won't destroy the universe, or do anything untoward for the following reasons:
1) Interactions of this sort are constantly occurring when cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere. If the universe was going to blow up, it would have done so by now. We need the equipment, however, since those interactions are very hard to observe reliably. Also, to detect the Higgs effect clearly we need trillions of them.
2) Although a black hole may be created, it is outstandingly unlikely. It's only become a possibility infinitesimally greater than 0 due to some advances in superstring theory which have made people realize that gravity could have behavior at small scales which is different than large scales and be internally consistent. Just because it could, however, does not mean that it does. It does make for interesting press releases for the general public, however.
3) Even if the black hole was created, its rate of evaporation would be so astoundingly fast that it wouldn't be technologically significant at all, much less be able to grow out of control. About a year ago I posted a link here to a relevant paper on the subject. They concluded that the rate of evaporation was 10^25 times too fast to cause any runaway issues.
This research could be a possible precursor to Warp Drive mechanics, or it might not. If we knew, for sure, that it was, it wouldn't be research.
Harnessing the powers of a black hole will be, like everything else, fairly trivial once you've done it a few times. Black holes are actually astonishingly simple objects. Unfortunately, like most things in physics, when you don't have complete information, predictions usually are not that good. That's why we do experiments. Once we have the experience (assuming that this thing creates a black hole, which is EXTREMELY unlikely) you could easily teach a bright undergrad to do it. Given 20 years of practice by the researchers, it could be a hobby for any interested layman that he could pick up in a month. People used to think that computer programming was beyond most people's imagination too, remember?
In any case, there are no secrets. The whole thing has been extremely well covered in the press, at least to the ability of the reporters to understand the physics. (If you are watching CNN, I can see how you may have felt that you got little information, but we already know that their reporters are ignorant blow-hards. Try reading Science News, since their reporters actually understand their subject.) With a little web-surfing, you can find out everything you could possibly want to know about this experiment in excruciating detail.