Ruins of a dream
2011-02-24 21:39:21.818323+01 by
petronius
2 comments
Another lost dream of the Soviet Empire: in the 1980s, the Russians began digging a huge ring for their own version of the Supercollider. Although never intended to be as big as CERN in Switzerland, it would have been a monster. As the pictures from English Russia Show, the ring itself had a bigger cross-section, since they only digging equipment they had was borrowed from the Moscow Metro. Now it lies rusting underneath Dubna, near Moscow, dripping into the infinite.
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comments in descending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2011-02-25 16:09:57.927431+01 by:
petronius
A look at the remains of the SuperCollider can be found here. I think one element in its abandonment is that the promoters low-balled the cost, expecting that Congress didn't want to leave it part done. They were wrong. Congress felt that it had been snookered, and ended the project.
An interesting question is whether CERN's current design, although smaller than the SuperC, is sufficient because it uses newer technology.
#Comment Re: made: 2011-02-25 10:43:16.685667+01 by:
andylyke
I wonder if anybody has done archeology on the super conducting super collider project, similarly abandoned by a "super power" that had bankrupted itself via military excesses.
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