Reagan Calls Super Collider ‘Doorway to New World’

President Reagan put in a plug for the superconducting super collider Wednesday, saying it is more than an “arcane interest” of a few research specialists.

Reagan has asked Congress to appropriate $365 million to begin construction of what would be the world’s largest particle accelerator.

Scientists disagree on the importance of the project. Some regard it as the key to future technology but others say it would only divert money from more worthwhile research.

“I know that some people may question the practical applications of the superconducting super collider,” Reagan told an audience of high school science students, four Nobel laureates and others in the Rose Garden.

Presidential Remarks

“The strange world of subatomic particles, they may think, will never be more than an arcane interest to a few highly specialized scientists,” he said.

“But the truth is, the practical applications of this new technology are already changing the way we live. Every time someone turns on his desk computer, makes a phone call or plays a video game, he is plugging into that mysterious world of quantum physics. The superconducting super collider is the doorway to that new world of quantum change.”

Reagan approved construction of the super collider in January, 1987. The cost of building a tunnel 53 miles around for it is expected to exceed $4 billion.

Site to Be Chosen

A site is to be selected in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee or Texas.

Six Nobel laureates, four of whom attended Wednesday’s ceremony, wrote Reagan that the project “represents America’s commitment to the pursuit of excellence in basic scientific research.” The letter was signed by James Watson Cronin, Val Logsdon Fitch, Sheldon Lee Glashow, Burton Richter, Samuel C. C. Ting and Steven Weinberg. Fitch and Glashow were absent.