Superconducting Super Collider
Encyclopedia : S : SU : SUP : Superconducting Super Collider
| |
| Hadron Colliders: Past, Present, and Future | |
| Intersecting Storage Rings | CERN, 1971–1984 |
| Super Proton Synchrotron | CERN, 1981–1984 |
| ISABELLE | BNL, cancelled in 1983 |
| Tevatron | Fermilab, 1987–2009 |
| Superconducting Super Collider | cancelled in 1993 |
| Large Hadron Collider | CERN, 2007–2020s |
| Very Large Hadron Collider | mid-to-late 21st century |
The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was a ring particle accelerator which was planned to be built in the area around Waxahachie, Texas. It was planned to have a ring circumference of 87 km (54 mi) and an energy of 20 TeV per beam, potentially enough energy to create a Higgs boson, a particle predicted by the Standard Model, but not yet detected. The project's director was Roy Schwitters, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University.
Development
The system was first envisioned in the December 1983 National Reference Designs Study, which examined the technical and economic feasibility of a machine with the design capacity of 20 TeV per beam. After an extensive Department of Energy review during the mid 1980s, a site selection process began in 1987. The project was awarded to Texas in November 1988 and major construction began in 1991. Seventeen shafts were sunk and 14.6 miles of tunnel were bored by late 1993.
Cancellation
During the design and the first construction stage, a heated debate ensued about the high cost of the project (the last estimate was $8.25 billion). An especially recurrent argument was the contrast with NASA's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), which was of similar amount. Critics of the project argued that the US could not afford both of them.
The project was canceled by Congress in 1993. Many factors contributed to the shutdown of the project, although different parties disagree on which contributed the most. They include rising cost estimates, mismanagement by physicists and Department of Energy officials, the end of the need to prove the supremacy of American science with the collapse of the Soviet Union, belief that many smaller scientific experiments of equal merit could be funded for the same cost, Congress's desire to generally reduce spending, and the unwillingness of Texas Governor Ann Richards [#endnote_treasons] and President Bill Clinton, both Democrats, to support a project initiated during the administrations of Richards's Republican predecessor, Bill Clements, and Clinton's Republican predecessors, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. [#endnote_reasons] The closing of the SSC held drastic ramifications for the southern part of the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex, and resulted in a mild recession made most evident in those parts of Dallas which lay south of the Trinity River. [#endnote_recession] At the time the project was cancelled, 22.5 km (14 mi) of tunnel were already dug and nearly 2 billion dollars had already been spent on the massive facility.
See also
References
- The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Leon Lederman, Dick Teresi (ISBN 0385312113)
- A Hole in Texas by Herman Wouk, Fiction, Little, Brown
- [The Dead Collider] by Bruce Sterling, F&SF Science column #13 (July, 1994)
- A Tale of Two Cultures: Building the Superconducting Super Collider, 1988-1993 by Michael Riordan. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 32(1), pp. 125–144 (Fall, 2001)
- The Demise of the Superconducting Super Collider by Michael Riordan. Physics in Perspective, 2(4), pp. 411–425 (December, 2000)
- [The Superconducting Super Collider Project: A Summary], in High Energy Physics Advisory Panel's Subpanel on Vision for the Future of High Energy Physics, Sidney D. Drell, Chair. U.S. Department of Energy (May, 2004)
- ↑ Trivelpiece recounts hearing "about a conversation between the Governor of Texas, the Honorable Ann Richards, and President Clinton early in his administration. He asked her if she wanted to fight for the SSC. She said no. That meant it would no longer be an administration imperative...."
- ↑
- ↑
External links
- [SSC website]
- [Super Boondoggle Time To Pull The Plug On The Superconducting Super Collider] (Cato Institute)
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