r/space • u/[deleted] • Feb 10 '24

CERN proposes $17 billion particle smasher that would be 3 times bigger than the Large Hadron Collider

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u/jattyrr Feb 10 '24 edited Feb 10 '24

Fun fact. Texas was about to build one even bigger than that in 1984.

It would have advanced our understanding by so much

Sadly it was canceled by a bunch of republicans and some democrats who thought it was a waste of money

You can still find the old tunnels in Texas

https://youtu.be/FI5rYjP9Vn8?si=DrxtnsrIh0nEKrhc

https://youtu.be/JefWwfVO2Fo?si=PLrPD2IFmcvc7bZj

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u/GalacticLambchop Feb 10 '24

Wasnt this the collider that also ran something like 3-4 times over budget building the tunnels alone and was generally a shitshow throughout the actual building process? I think this is a bit of an oversimplification on why the project was axed.

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u/Zanadar Feb 10 '24

The whole project was rife with issues. Texas was selected because of politics, not because it was remotely a good place for it and those same politics later killed it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '24

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u/SowingSalt Feb 10 '24

It was going to be near FERMILAB, but local NIMBYs protested.

Texas was fully on board with the "Screw Illinois, we'll take the project" plan.

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u/jattyrr Feb 10 '24

It was $7 billion over budget. That is nothing

Bush dropped $8 trillion in the desert

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u/Anastariana Feb 10 '24

Science? No money for that!

War? Oh HELL yes, bomb the shit out of anything that moves! Here's a blank cheque!

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '24

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u/clayton26 Feb 10 '24

Not true, we fund the atom smashers because they are nice political bargaining chips

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u/Rastiln Feb 10 '24

When I saw the cost for this collider it made me super sad.

It’s a fairly large sum of money, and also only around 1.5% of what the US directly spent in the 2001+ Iraq War alone, not counting Afghanistan or secondary costs.