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THE AMERICAN Secretary of Energy, James Watkins, told Congress on Monday
that the US’s planned particle accelerator, the Superconducting Super Collider
(SSC), will cost ‘at least one to two billion dollars’ more than the $5.9
billion estimated last year. He also admitted that the final cost estimate
may be so high that the collider is not worth building.

‘We might find we’ve priced ourselves out of the thing,’ Watkins told
an appropriations subcommittee. ‘But I think not, I think we’re going to
make it work.’ He promised that Congress would have the final cost estimates
by June.

Watkins also told the subcommittee that he and presidential science
adviser Allan Bromley agree that the SSC has to be built at ‘nothing less’
than an energy level of 20 teraelectronvolts; some critics had suggested
reducing the energy in order to cut costs.

Some members of Congress would like to see other nations helping to
pay for the SSC, but do not want the technology for superconducting magnets
to be made available to them. Watkins tried to calm such fears by stating
that a large percentage of magnets will be built in the US. ‘There are four
other nations that are as skilled or more skilled in magnet design than
the US, so the technology transfer may go the other way,’ he added.