NATION : $225 Million in Start-Up Money for Super Collider Approved by Senate
The Senate gave final congressional approval today to a $225-million down payment on the $5-billion experimental atom smasher planned for northern Texas.
The money was included in a compromise measure providing $18.6 billion for next year’s federal energy and water programs, which lawmakers approved on a unanimous voice vote.
The bill was the first of the 13 annual appropriations bills for government agencies for fiscal 1990 to be sent to President Bush for his signature. Bush, who lists Texas as his official residence, is expected to sign the legislation. Fiscal 1990 begins Oct. 1.
Most of the $225 million for the superconducting super collider would be for initial construction expenses of what ultimately will be a 53-mile circular underground tunnel about 25 miles south of Dallas. The rest would be for research and development.
The project, expected to take up to seven years to complete, will be used by scientists to hurl beams of protons into each other in a search for the basic building blocks of the universe.
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