Tevatron shutting down

**skh1** · January 23, 2011, 03:08 PM

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory’s Tevatron will shut down by the end of September, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced, dashing hopes that the 25-year-old atom smasher in Batavia, Ill., might win a transatlantic race to find the most sought-after elementary particle in high-energy physics.

Fermilab received the news from the Department of Energy on January 10 that the agency could not come up with an annual $35 million to keep the Tevatron running until 2014. The department’s advisory panel on high energy physics had recommended that the Tevatron operate for an additional three years after the European consortium CERN announced in early 2010 that its more powerful Large Hadron Collider would close down during all of 2012 for repairs. (It’s now likely that the collider will shut down in 2013 instead, a CERN official says.)

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/gene...n_in_September

Well, over to you, CERN. I guess the US can't come up the with $35 million—[per annum].

**Gaidin** · January 23, 2011, 04:55 PM

Originally Posted by skh1

Well, over to you, CERN. I guess the US can't come up the with $35 million.

$105 million. A technicality, yes, but still. It's $35 million a year.

**MathiasOfAthens** · January 23, 2011, 05:28 PM

the Swiss have beaten us again.

**Jack04** · January 23, 2011, 06:55 PM

Its a shame because it was a truly incredible machine. Discovering the top quark and laying the foundations of a lot of modern high energy particle physics along the way. There was very little point keeping it going though unless it was seriously thought that it offered something different to the search when compared to the LHC and clearly those controlling the funds didn't think it did. It will almost certainly remain the highest centre of mass energy circular particle/anti-particle collider forever too. As I say, incredible machine.

**Sphere** · January 24, 2011, 10:11 AM

The Department of Energy has a 24,100 million dollar budget and it cannot scrape together 35 million for this project? I call BS, there must be something political here.

**B5C** · January 24, 2011, 01:12 PM

Originally Posted by Sphere

The Department of Energy has a 24,100 million dollar budget and it cannot scrape together 35 million for this project? I call BS, there must be something political here.

Yet the Pentagon spends 35 millions on toilets.

**MathiasOfAthens** · January 25, 2011, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by Sphere

The Department of Energy has a 24,100 million dollar budget and it cannot scrape together 35 million for this project? I call BS, there must be something political here.

It has 24 Million and only needs 35 million to go... theres nothing to scrap from. Now if it had 50 million and it only needed 35 then yeah it can start scrapping but not when scrapping means nothing else gets paid for including their salaries.

Originally Posted by B5C

Yet the Pentagon spends 35 millions on toilets.

Do you know by any chance how many toilets a cramped Aircraft carrier would need?? Try millions.

**Jack04** · January 25, 2011, 09:52 AM

Originally Posted by MathiasOfAthens

It has 24 Million and only needs 35 million to go... theres nothing to scrap from. Now if it had 50 million and it only needed 35 then yeah it can start scrapping but not when scrapping means nothing else gets paid for including their salaries.

If the number Sphere quoted is correct, then its $24 billion, not million.

To be fair, these are all politically motivated in the end. Money's tight and its probably assumed that they're better off just getting on board with the LHC. Its very questionable as to whether there is anything else the Tevatron would be able to discover, beyond improvements upon its own measurements. Even more so when it comes to the extra dimensions, SUSY particles, etc. that the LHC is out to find.

**Sphere** · January 25, 2011, 12:50 PM

Yes the DOE budget is 24 Billion not 24 million. Granted Fermi lab is quite old and does not have the fidelity and power of the LHC but without it no large scale particle collisions are going to be occuring for a year or so. It doesn't make sense to shut it while the LHC is not fully functional. The act of just carrying out particle collision experiments on any scale is very important for continuing research, as the techniques of assesing of data can be a more challenging affair than actually gathering data.

For the DOE it should be a no brainer to find the rather small amount of money needed to keep Fermi lab going an extra year or two while LHC is down.

**Jack04** · January 25, 2011, 01:39 PM

I don't remember the exact timescale of the LHC shutdown (though I seem to remember it should be active again towards the end of 2011) but I don't think there'll be too much of a gap between the Tevatron winding down in September and the LHc getting back to work. Certainly not a year, or I'd hope not.