CHAPTER TEX— HIGH-EXERGY PHYSICS : AX ISSUE 



WITHOUT A FOCUS 



I. Introduction 



The substantial expansion of the field of high-energy physics, largely 

 with Government funding, may be attributable in part to the fact that 

 few issues in this field have been permitted to come to a head. A pos- 

 sible explanation of this absence of controversy is that the science 

 community, or that substantial portion of the scientific leadership 

 that is committed to preserving U.S. eminence in high-energy physics, 

 attaches so much importance to this field of basic research that it 

 makes a positive effort to preserve a solid front, with virtually all 

 issues mediated within the community. Another possibility is that the 

 close relationship between the Atomic Energy Commission and the 

 high-energy physicists, and the close relationship between the AEC 

 and the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, insure that issues are 

 resolved at the technical level, before they burgeon into political 

 controversies. 



Since 1945, Government support for basic research in high-energy 

 physics has risen from $3.9 million to more than $150 million annually. 

 The subject of this field of science is the ultimate structure and com- 

 position of the atomic nucleus. Penetration of the nucleus can be 

 accomplished only by particles accelerated to extreme velocities by 

 high-energ3^ accelerators. Decisions have been taken leading to Gov- 

 ernment-funded construction of a 33 billion electron volt (Bev.) 

 accelerator at Brookhaven Xational Laboratory, costing some $30 

 million; a 20-Bev. linear accelerator at Stanford University, Palo Alto, 

 Calif., costing some $114 million ; and a 200-Bev. accelerator at Weston, 

 111., to cost an eventual $280 million or thereabouts. In prospect is an 

 800-Bev. accelerator, estimated to cost some $800 million. As a rough 

 rule-of-thumb factor, tlie annual operating cost of these large, experi- 

 mental machines is between one-third and one-half of the acquisition 

 cost. 



During the evolutionary period in the discipline, after World War 

 II and particularly in the past decade, a number of issues regarding 

 one or another of the programs of new research hardware in the field 

 might have expanded into major controversies, but did not. One was 

 as to the marring of the landscape near the Stanford accelerator by 

 the powerline to the project. Another involved the acceptance or 

 rejection of an accelerator of novel design to be sited in the Middle 

 West, which was turned down by President Johnson as an economy 



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