It’s <i> Not </i> a Nuclear Plant, It’s a Fungus

A petroleum engineer has his eyes on five miles of dark, damp tunnels, where scientists had once contemplated smashing atoms.

But Naresh Vashisht doesn’t want it for science. He wants to harvest white button mushrooms.

Vashisht, president of a Texas firm that owns a Colorado mushroom farm, says the underground remnants of the uncompleted Superconducting Super Collider south of Dallas are prime turf for fungus, if not for physics.

The five-mile stretch of tunnel is 200 feet underground and sealed with concrete. The Energy Department is considering abandoning the tunnels and letting them fill with water.

“I think that is probably a waste of resources,” Vashisht said, “if something can be done economically like I’m thinking can be done.”