Superconducting Super Collider
Encyclopedia
The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) (also nicknamed the Desertron) was a particle accelerator
complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas
that was set to be world's largest and most energetic, surpassing the current record held by the Large Hadron Collider
. Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometres (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 TeV
per beam of protons. The project's director was Roy Schwitters
, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin
and Harvard University
. Dr. Louis Ianniello served as Associate Director. The project was cancelled in 1993 due to budget problems.
Jim Wright
of nearby Fort Worth
. By 1993, the cost projection exceeded $12 billion. A recurring argument was the contrast with NASA
's contribution to the International Space Station
(ISS), a similar dollar amount. Critics of the project argued that the US could not afford both of them. Early in 1993 a group supported by funds from project contractors organized a public relations campaign to lobby Congress directly, but in June, the non-profit Project on Government Oversight
released a draft audit report by the Department of Energy
's Inspector General heavily criticizing the Super Collider for its high costs and poor management by officials in charge of it.
Congress
officially canceled the project October 21, 1993. Many factors contributed to the cancellation: rising cost estimates; poor management 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; the reluctance of Texas Governor Ann Richards
; and President Bill Clinton
's initial lack of support for a project begun during the administrations of Richards's predecessor, Bill Clements
, and Clinton's predecessors, Ronald Reagan
and George H. W. Bush
. However, in 1993, Clinton tried to prevent the cancellation by asking Congress to continue "to support this important and challenging effort" through completion because "abandoning the SSC at this point would signal that the United States is compromising its position of leadership in basic science".
The closing of the SSC had adverse consequences for the southern part of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex
, and resulted in a mild recession
, most evident in those parts of Dallas
which lay south of the Trinity River
. When the project was canceled, 22.5 km (14 mi) of tunnel and 17 shafts to the surface were already dug, and nearly two billion dollars had already been spent on the massive facility.
an counterpart, the Large Hadron Collider
(LHC) at CERN
in Geneva
.
The SSC cost was due largely to the massive civil engineering project of digging a huge tunnel underground. The LHC in contrast took over the pre-existing engineering infrastructure and 27 km long underground cavern of the Large Electron-Positron Collider
, and used innovative magnet designs to bend the higher energy particles into the available tunnel. . The LHC eventually cost the equivalent of about 5 billion US dollars to build.
After the project was canceled, the main site was deeded to Ellis County, Texas
, and the county tried numerous times to sell the property. The property was finally sold in August 2006 to an investment group led by the late J.B. Hunt
. Collider Data Center has contracted with GVA Cawley to market the site as a tier III or tier IV data center
. As of October 2010, the site is abandoned and run-down.
Particle accelerator
A particle accelerator is a device that uses electromagnetic fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator. There are two basic types: electrostatic and oscillating field accelerators.In...
complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
that was set to be world's largest and most energetic, surpassing the current record held by the Large Hadron Collider
Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
. Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometres (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 TeV
TEV
TEV may refer to:* TeV, or teraelectronvolt, a measure of energy* Total Enterprise Value, a financial measure* Total Economic Value, an economic measure* Tobacco etch virus, a plant pathogenic virus of the family Potyviridae....
per beam of protons. The project's director was Roy Schwitters
Roy Schwitters
Roy F. Schwitters is a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin. He was formerly a professor of physics at Harvard and Stanford. His undergraduate and doctoral degrees are both from MIT....
, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Dr. Louis Ianniello served as Associate Director. The project was cancelled in 1993 due to budget problems.
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 23.5 km (14.6 mi) 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. In 1987, Congress was told the project could be completed for $4.4 billion, and it gained the enthusiastic support of SpeakerSpeaker (politics)
The term speaker is a title often given to the presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body. The speaker's official role is to moderate debate, make rulings on procedure, announce the results of votes, and the like. The speaker decides who may speak and has the...
Jim Wright
Jim Wright
James Claude Wright, Jr. , usually known as Jim Wright, is a former Democratic U.S. Congressman from Texas who served 34 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and was the Speaker of the House from 1987 to 1989.-Early life:...
of nearby Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
. By 1993, the cost projection exceeded $12 billion. A recurring argument was the contrast with NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's contribution to the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
(ISS), a similar dollar amount. Critics of the project argued that the US could not afford both of them. Early in 1993 a group supported by funds from project contractors organized a public relations campaign to lobby Congress directly, but in June, the non-profit Project on Government Oversight
Project on Government Oversight
The Project On Government Oversight , founded in 1981, is an independent non-profit organization in the United States which investigates and seeks to expose corruption and other misconduct. POGO assists whistleblowers and investigates federal agencies, Congress, and government contractors...
released a draft audit report by the Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
's Inspector General heavily criticizing the Super Collider for its high costs and poor management by officials in charge of it.
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
officially canceled the project October 21, 1993. Many factors contributed to the cancellation: rising cost estimates; poor management by physicists and Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
officials; the end of the need to prove the supremacy of American science with the collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; belief that many smaller scientific experiments of equal merit could be funded for the same cost; Congress's desire to generally reduce spending; the reluctance of Texas Governor Ann Richards
Ann Richards
Dorothy Ann Willis Richards was an American politician from Texas. She first came to national attention as the state treasurer of Texas, when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards served as the 45th Governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995 and was...
; and President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's initial lack of support for a project begun during the administrations of Richards's predecessor, Bill Clements
Bill Clements
William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...
, and Clinton's predecessors, Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. However, in 1993, Clinton tried to prevent the cancellation by asking Congress to continue "to support this important and challenging effort" through completion because "abandoning the SSC at this point would signal that the United States is compromising its position of leadership in basic science".
The closing of the SSC had adverse consequences for the southern part of the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex
Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex
The Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington Metropolitan Statistical Area, a title designated by the U.S. Census as of 2003, encompasses 12 counties within the U.S. state of Texas. The area is divided into two metropolitan divisions: Dallas–Plano–Irving and Fort Worth–Arlington. Residents of the area...
, and resulted in a mild recession
Recession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
, most evident in those parts of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
which lay south of the Trinity River
Trinity River (Texas)
The Trinity River is a long river that flows entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. It rises in extreme north Texas, a few miles south of the Red River. The headwaters are separated by the high bluffs on the south side of the Red River....
. When the project was canceled, 22.5 km (14 mi) of tunnel and 17 shafts to the surface were already dug, and nearly two billion dollars had already been spent on the massive facility.
Comparison to the Large Hadron Collider
The SSC's planned collision energy of 40 TeV was almost triple the 14 TeV of its EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an counterpart, the Large Hadron Collider
Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions of physics, advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature....
(LHC) at CERN
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research , known as CERN , is an international organization whose purpose is to operate the world's largest particle physics laboratory, which is situated in the northwest suburbs of Geneva on the Franco–Swiss border...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
The SSC cost was due largely to the massive civil engineering project of digging a huge tunnel underground. The LHC in contrast took over the pre-existing engineering infrastructure and 27 km long underground cavern of the Large Electron-Positron Collider
Large Electron-Positron Collider
The Large Electron–Positron Collider was one of the largest particle accelerators ever constructed.It was built at CERN, a multi-national centre for research in nuclear and particle physics near Geneva, Switzerland. LEP was a circular collider with a circumference of 27 kilometres built in a...
, and used innovative magnet designs to bend the higher energy particles into the available tunnel. . The LHC eventually cost the equivalent of about 5 billion US dollars to build.
Current status of site
Ellis County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 111,360 people, 37,020 households, and 29,653 families residing in the county. The population density was 118 people per square mile . There were 39,071 housing units at an average density of 42 per square mile...
, and the county tried numerous times to sell the property. The property was finally sold in August 2006 to an investment group led by the late J.B. Hunt
Johnnie Bryan Hunt
Johnnie Bryan Hunt, Sr. , better known as J. B. Hunt, was an American entrepreneur who founded J.B. Hunt Transport Services, the largest publicly owned trucking company in the USA. His company is based in Lowell, Arkansas.- Personal background :Hunt was born in Heber Springs, Arkansas...
. Collider Data Center has contracted with GVA Cawley to market the site as a tier III or tier IV data center
Data center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
. As of October 2010, the site is abandoned and run-down.
See also
- FermilabFermilabFermi National Accelerator Laboratory , located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a US Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics...
- DESYDESYThe DESY is the biggest German research center for particle physics, with sites in Hamburg and Zeuthen....
- UNK proton acceleratorUNK proton acceleratorThe UNK proton accelerator was a large particle accelerator under construction in Protvino, near Moscow, Russia, at the Institute for High Energy Physics. While progress in construction was announced in 1996, after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the economic changes in the country, government...
a similar competing Soviet project discontinued at about the same time in Russia. - Einstein's BridgeEinstein's Bridge (book)Einstein's Bridge is a hard science fiction novel by John G. Cramer, first published in June 1997.The plot revolves around three central human characters, George Griffen, Roger Coulton, and Alice Lang. Set in 1987 through 2004, the book details the efforts of physicists George and Roger as they...
and A Hole in TexasA Hole In TexasA Hole In Texas is a novel by Herman Wouk. Published in 2004, the book describes the adventures of a high-energy physicist following the surprise announcement that a Chinese physicist had discovered the long-sought Higgs boson.Parts of the plot are based on the aborted Superconducting Super...
, both science fiction novels about the SSC - The God ParticleThe God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What is the Question? is a 1993 popular science book by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon M. Lederman and science writer Dick Teresi....
by Leon Lederman and Dick TeresiDick Teresi- Author and coauthor :Dick Teresi is an American writer. He is a co-author of The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? He is also a former editor of Omni....
External links
- SSC website
- "The High Water Mark of American Science". (photo tour). American Physical SocietyAmerican Physical SocietyThe American Physical Society is the world's second largest organization of physicists, behind the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The Society publishes more than a dozen scientific journals, including the world renowned Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, and organizes more than 20...
Physics Central blog, March 24, 2011.