Superconducting Super Collider
The abandoned Superconducting Super Collider site in 2008 | |
| General properties | |
|---|---|
| Accelerator type | Synchrotron |
| Beam type | proton |
| Target type | Collider |
| Beam properties | |
| Maximum energy | ~40TeV |
| Maximum luminosity | 1×1033/(cm2⋅s) |
| Physical properties | |
| Circumference | 87.1 kilometers (54.1 mi) |
| Location | Waxahachie, Texas |
| Coordinates | 32°21′51″N 96°56′38″W / 32.36417°N 96.94389°W |
| Institution | United States Department of Energy |
| Dates of operation | Never completed |
The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), nicknamed Desertron, was a particle accelerator complex under construction from 1991 to 1993 near Waxahachie, Texas, United States.
Its planned ring circumference was 87.1 kilometers (54.1 mi) with an energy of 20 TeV per proton and was designed to be the world's largest and most energetic particle accelerator. The laboratory director was Roy Schwitters, a physicist at the University of Texas at Austin. Department of Energy administrator Louis Ianniello served as its first project director, followed by Joe Cipriano, who came to the SSC Project from the Pentagon in May 1990. After 22.5 km (14 mi) of tunnel had been bored and about US$2 billion spent, the project was canceled by the US Congress in 1993.