Program for Particles

As they split up their share of the Government bankroll, scientists may differ about the value of space flight, but rare is the objection to the big bills that will be run up by the construction of new particle accelerators. These monster machines promise to pay for their keep by telling how energy clumps together to form the material particles that make up the universe, by contributing more than existing accelerators can to man's knowledge of nuclear energy.

Last week a panel of scientists selected by the Atomic Energy Commission and the President's Science Advisory Committee urged an ambitious, 18-year program of big-accelerator acquisition. The proposed shopping list: > A $240 million proton accelerator with 200-billion-eIectron-volt energy for Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley.

>An $800 million, 800-Bev accelerator for Brookhaven National Laboratory. Design studies should begin, say the scientists, even before the first accelerator is finished.

>A $148 million low-energy (12.5 Bev) machine with a high-intensity beam that will contain 100 times as many protons as Brookhaven's present 33-Bev synchrotron. In one year, this massive beam will perform experiments that would require 100 years on Brookhaven's present equipment.

For very high-energy experiments, the panel recommends devices called storage rings that will make high-energy protons move in opposite directions and collide headon. The superviolent crack-ups will be few because most of the protons will miss each other, but even one smash may become what the panel yearningly calls "a window on the future." Cost: $60 million.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.