P.M. BRIEFING : Europe Unveils Atom Smasher
Presidents and royalty inaugurated the world’s largest atom smasher today, a pan-European experiment designed to reveal what makes up the universe.
The $750-million machine, called a Large Electron Positron Collider, is a long concrete ring running underground at the Franco-Swiss border.
The United States is planning to build an even larger atom smasher, the Superconductor Super Collider, in Texas for almost $6 billion. So far, Congress has allocated $200 million toward that project.
French President Francois Mitterrand, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav and other European personalities formally opened the LEP, which has already been churning out findings since it began running in July.
Addressing a formal inauguration ceremony, Carl Gustav described LEP as a major triumph of European scientific cooperation while Mitterrand said it was a “giant step in fundamental research.” “The world’s largest scientific instrument will help penetrate the mystery of nature’s structure,” the French president added.
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