![]() The report also concluded that there was inadequate documentation for $203 million in project spending, or 40% of the money spent up to that point. The Inspector General investigated $500,000 in questionable expenses over three years, including $12,000 for Christmas parties, $25,000 for catered lunches, and $21,000 for the purchase and maintenance of office plants. 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. By March, the New York Times reported the estimated total cost had grown to $8.4 billion. In February, the General Accounting Office reported a $630 million overrun in the $1.25 billion construction budget. Early in 1993, a group supported by funds from project contractors organized a public relations campaign to lobby Congress directly in support of the project. In 1992, it was opposed by a majority of the House of Representatives (231-181), but was included in the final reconciled budget due to support in the Senate (62-32). Bush vomiting incident.Ĭongress began appropriating annual funding for the project. A US-Japanese trade mission where SSC funding was supposed to be discussed ended in the George H. India pledged $50 million, but talks with Japan foundered over trade tensions in the automobile industry. European funding remained at CERN, which was already working on the Large Hadron Collider. This was hindered by promotion of the project as promoting American superiority. Leaders hoped to get financial support from Europe, Canada, Japan, Russia, and India. Critics of the project (Congressmen representing other US states and scientists working in non-SSC fields who felt the money would be better spent on their own fields) argued that the US could not afford both of them.Įstimates of the additional cost caused by not using existing physical and human infrastructure at Fermilab in Illinois range from $495 million to $3.28 billion. A recurring argument was the contrast with NASA's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), a similar dollar amount. ![]() In 1987, Congress was told the project could be completed for $4.4 billion, and it gained the enthusiastic support of Speaker Jim Wright of nearby Fort Worth, Texas. Partial construction and financial issuesĪ high-level schematic of the lab landscape during the final planning phases.ĭuring the design and the first construction stage, a heated debate ensued about the high cost of the project. Seventeen shafts were sunk and 23.5 km (14.6 mi) of tunnel were bored by late 1993. Department of Energy review was done during the mid-1980s. Fermilab director and subsequent Nobel physics prizewinner Leon Lederman was a very prominent early supporter – some sources say the architect or proposer – of the Superconducting Super Collider project, which was endorsed around 1983, and a major proponent and advocate throughout its lifetime.Īn extensive U.S. The system was first formally discussed in the December 1976 National Reference Designs Study, which examined the technical and economic feasibility of a machine with the design capacity of 20 TeV per proton. After 22.5 km (14 mi) of tunnel were bored and nearly two billion dollars were spent, the project was cancelled in 1993 due to budget problems. Louis Ianniello served as its first Project Director for 15 months. The project's director was Roy Schwitters, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. ![]() Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometers (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 TeV per proton and was set to be the world's largest and most energetic. The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) (also nicknamed the desertron) was a particle accelerator complex under construction in the vicinity of Waxahachie, Texas.
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