The Superconducting Super Collider (often abbreviated as 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.
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, which was of similar amount. Critics of the project argued that the US could not afford both of them.
The project was eventually canceled by Congress in 1993 after 22.5 km (14 mi) of tunnel were already dug and 2 billion dollars spent.
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
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