WASHINGTON—States competing for the Superconducting Supercollider have been given 30 more days to submit their proposals to the Department of Energy.

The department’s original deadline of August 3 for proposals, announced last winter, produced howls of outrage from states that had waited to mount their campaigns until President Reagan threw his support behind the multibillion-dollar project. They complained they could never catch up to the handful of states that had already spent millions of dollars developing their proposals, and bidded for a later deadline.

An amendment to an otherwise unrelated money bill, voted July 1 by Congress, gave DOE officials an excuse to push the deadline back to September 2. The amendment deletes as a consideration in the review process a provision that states can tempt the government with financial incentives.

The official reason for the delay is “to provide potential proposers adequate time to make changes to comply with...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!