House Vote On SSC Construction Funds Seen As Major Step For Texas Project

WASHINGTON-A recent decision by the U.S. House of Representatives to spend $110 million to begin construction of the superconducting supercollider is expected to break a political and financial logjam that has stymied advocates of the 53-mile-long laboratory. The lopsided House vote on June 28 (see page 11 for excerpts of that debate) has been greeted by SSC backers as the first tangible commitment by Congress to build the $6 billion accelerator. Although the mammoth project must now clear a similar hurdle in the Senate before any money becomes available, its prospects seem bright. "Getting funds for construction does three things for us," says Raphael Kasper, associate director of the SSC laboratory in Waxahachie, Tex. "It will make it easier to recruit people, it will facilitate negotiations with foreign governments for their contribution to the project, and it will trigger matching funds from the state of Texas." The SSC allocation is tucked into an $18.5 billion appropriations bill approved the same day by the House that covers the Department of Energy and various water projects. The bill includes $90 million to continue research on the superconducting magnets that will drive the twin proton beams into their 40 trillion electron-volt collisions. SSC officials, while happy with the House vote, hasten to add that the project is still in its infancy. So far, they have hired only about 190 of the expected 2,500 scientists, technicians, and support personnel who will be needed to operate the facility, although much of the top management, led by Harvard University physicist Roy Schwitters, is already in place. Also in the early stages is the Bush administration's goal of finding outside partners for up to one third of the total cost of the project. Only India, with a proposal for $50 million in in-kind contributions, has gone beyond simple expressions of interest. In addition, the $1 billion that the state of Texas has pledged for the project remains a paper promise until Congress actually goes beyond financing research on the novel 16-meter magnets. But getting a glimpse of the funds that will actually be needed to turn their dreams into reality has invigorated high-energy physicists around the country. "I'm convinced that science budgets will jump sharply over the next decade," says Leon Lederman, the 1988 Nobel laureate in physics who recently stepped down as director of Fermilab to join the University of Chicago faculty. "And the House vote on the SSC is a sign that Congress realizes the importance of supporting basic research. I think there's a growing understanding that, despite the deficit, we need to maintain our leadership in science if we hope to remain competitive in the 21st century." The recent congressional debate was filled with statements of the SSC's potential contribution to all areas of society, including anticipated breakthroughs in medical research. Despite Lederman's staunch support for the SSC, he sees such rhetoric as a flight of fancy. "To say that we're going to build the SSC for its medical benefits is loony," Lederman says. "You do it for the science, as well as to excite our young people and show them what opportunities lie ahead if they pursue a career in science." Critics of the SSC acknowledge the lure of such a project. Most are careful to couch their criticism in fiscal terms, arguing either that the country can't afford it or that the money would be better spent on other science projects. And they feel that their unsuccessful fight on the House floor will pay dividends in future debates on the project. "This vote puts DOE on notice that they are going to be watched carefully as they proceed with the SSC," says Louise Hilsen, a staffer for Rep. Dennis Eckart (D-Ohio), whose amendment to cut out construction funds was crushed by a vote of 330-93. "They will be constrained to bring it in on time, on budget, and with substantial foreign contributions." Calling his stance a "victory for the U.S. taxpayer," she adds that Eckart hasn't given up, "I think that we're in a strong position for a renewed fight on the project if DOE doesn't do things right," she says. "This isn't the last time the subject will come up." SSC...AND NOW THE MOVIE! WASHINGTON-In the emerging hagiology of the superconducting supercollider, one of the most honored is the account of the January 1987 meeting at which President Reagan is said to have signaled his approval by telling his advisers to "throw deep." Now that the project is finally on its way, there are a lot of people who would like to believe that they had something to do with helping the president make up his mind. Enter the SSC video. Back in the spring of 1986, a group of high-energy physicists at Fermilab decided that a visual presentation might clinch the case for a president whose budget advisers didn't think the government could afford the SSC. They won the support of Alvin Trivelpiece, director of the Office of Energy Research at the Department of Energy (DOE), Which awarded a $52,000 contract to Chedd-Angier, a Watertown, Mass., media production company with an illustrious track record of popularizing science on television. The result was an 18-minute video produced by Joe Blatt, entitled "To The Heart of Matter," that featured a group of high school students enrolled in a Saturday-morning program at the DOE-supported lab. By all accounts, the video was a hit among Washington science officials who saw it. By October, however, Trivelpiece was in the market for something new-and punchier-to show the president. So Fred Ullrich, head of visual media services at Fermilab, spent $2,000 to edit down the "Heart" tape to 10 minutes and sent it off to Washington. Try again, the answer came back. At this point, Leon Lederman, then director of Fermilab, wrote a new script, entitled "A Brief on High-Energy Physics." It stressed the theoretical underpinnings of the SSC in a clear and straightforward manner, but Trivelpiece felt it was too abstract to be effective. So Lederman tried again, and for $1,000 Ullrich produced a fourth version, entitled "Basic Questions about the SSC." It starred a dignified gentleman, described on the tape as a federal judge, Who wanders into Fermilab and asks scientists for a layman's explanation of the World of high-energy physics. Lederman thought he finally had a winner. In fact, this past spring he told a group of television news executives that "we sent the tape in, and it was a success. The appropriate assistant secretary said that it was going to be shown to the president at Camp David." Not so, says Trivelpiece, the federal official that Lederman did not identify. In fact, says Trivelpiece, none of the four versions ever went beyond his desk. "They didn't quite measure up," he says about the quality and content of the tapes. "They were aimed more at kids than at the president." But he doesn't regret the effort. "Believe me, had somebody made a videotape that was particularly appropriate, I would have used it," he says. "Getting something in front of the president is not duck soup." Trivelpiece estimates that he must have looked at 150 items, including articles, speeches, slides, and tapes, that were sent to him in an effort to persuade the president to back the SSC. But he says that, in the end, his presentation to Reagan was based on material that he and others in the executive branch had compiled. The authors of those misguided efforts don't seem to mind that their efforts were in vain. "We were guessing that the idea of a new-frontier type project would appeal to the president," says Lederman, "but nobody knew what it would take to convince him." In fact, Chedd-Angier's Blatt produced a second video for DOE, done after the president had endorsed the project, but before the Texas site had been selected, entitled "Entering New Frontiers." But Blatt does admit to one professional disappointment. "I've never seen the edited version of 'Heart,' and I don't think I want to," he says. "I thought it worked pretty well the way I shot it." -J.M.

House Vote On SSC Construction Funds Seen As Major Step For Texas Project

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