Super Push for a Supercollider

By John S. DeMott

The underground tunnel will form a giant ring 53 miles in circumference. Streams of subatomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light will be held on course by huge electromagnets. When one stream of high-speed protons smashes into another stream moving in the opposite direction, the force of the collision will create a host of short-lived particles not seen since the first moments after the Big Bang gave birth to the universe. Physicists are hoping that the appearance of exotic new particles -- higgs bosons, squarks and sleptons -- will open new vistas of inner space for scientists to study.

At a cost of $4.4 billion, the tunnel would be the priciest scientific instrument ever built. Is it worth it? The answer -- from the array of Governors, particle physicists, academicians and university officials lining up for congressional hearings this week to speak in favor of the appropriation of a $36 million down payment for the superconducting supercollider -- is yes, yes, 4.4 billion times yes.

Long a dream of the American particle-physics community, an accelerator the size of the proposed SSC would be 20 times as powerful as any now existing. It would dwarf the major U.S. accelerators -- Fermilab in Batavia, Ill., and another at Stanford University -- and would surpass even Europe's CERN collider, near Geneva. Formally endorsed by Ronald Reagan last January, the project is what Energy Secretary John Herrington calls a "momentous leap forward" in the exploration of matter and energy.

To states vying for the collider, the project means more than just a giant subterranean circle with a few buildings topside. After creating jobs at the outset for 4,500 construction workers, the SSC will attract a work force of 2,500 scientists, engineers and technicians, and provide a lure for federal and private research dollars. Says Syracuse University Particle Physicist Marvin Goldberg: "It's hard to think of a classier project."

The official site-selection process began last week, when the Energy Department issued invitations for proposals. But more than a dozen states had jumped the gun. So far Illinois has spent $4.5 million in developing its proposal for siting the SSC near Fermilab, and California has picked its spot, near Stockton. South Dakota has appropriated $900,000 to land the accelerator. Texas is promoting ten different sites for the tunnel and considering a $1 billion bond issue. Says Texas Governor Bill Clements of the SSC: "It could be bigger than NASA." Particle-physics fans are cropping up in the most unlikely places. In Malone, N.Y., a small town near the Canadian border, 800 people turned out to hear physicists lecture about the project.

The list of serious contenders may be quickly pared by the SSC's + requirements: 16,000 acres of donated land, a flow of between 500 and 2,200 gallons of water a minute and up to 250 megawatts of power, as well as accessibility to a major airport, so the world's scientists can fly in and out. According to Scientific American, the front runners in the accelerator SSC race appear to be Illinois, California, Texas, Washington, Colorado, Ohio and Utah.

The big bucks for the SSC's little bang still need federal authorization, and there are some doubts in Congress about its affordability. A number of scientists too are wary of spending so much money on a single project. Yet by the Aug. 3 deadline, more than 30 states are expected to submit proposals. The winner will be selected on Jan. 19, 1989, the Reagan Administration's last full day in office. So far, it seems, the mere idea of the SSC has the power of a thousand suns.

With reporting by J. Madeleine Nash/Chicago