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Wednesday, July 7, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Super collider funding cut controversial
By David Stewart Special to the Kansan
Despite an overwhelming vote in Congress last month to kill the $1 billion Superconducting Super Collider project, a KU professor still hopes the Senate will restore the funding.
The project is an effort to better understand the inner makeup of an atom's nucleus, said Francis Prosser, associate head of the physics and astronomy department. The super collider will be 10 times more powerful than any current particle accelerator in the United States.
Prosser said the project represented the forefront of high-technology research and deserved to have its funding restored.
"It will be a blow to U.S. prestige in science if this project is dropped," he said.
The Senate is expected to vote on the collider's funding after returning from its August recess. Two weeks ago, the House voted 280 to 150 to stop funding for the project.
Collaborating with other researchers at Kansas State University and the University of Colorado, six
KU physics professors are contributing to the project's design and construction.
Prosser said the research team also would help develop the project's particle detectors. The detectors will record the impact of high/ly accelerated atoms as they speed around the collider's two 54-mile rings.
"These detectors have 'to be able to track all the pieces of the particles after they collide," Prosser said.
"Their purpose is to reconstruct the event," he said. "It could be analogous to an indy race car driver flying into the wall and trying to reconstruct the pieces from a video tape of the moments right after the accident."
Prosser responded to criticism that the project appeared to have little practical application by saying that the results of research are often unexpected and extremely beneficial.
"Relativity and nuclear energy are good examples from history." Prosser said. "No one would have predicted when these theories were first proposed what would happen. But look at all the positive results that came out of them."
eve as an example.
Prosser used laser surgery on the
"Nuclear energy research did not come out of eye surgery. It worked the other way around." Prosser said. "For this type of project, you just can't predict. You just can't promise what will happen."
This uncertainty of the project's potential outcome was one factor that led Rep. Jim Slattery, D-Kan., to vote against the project.
In a prepared statement, Slattery supported his vote to cut funding by citing a Congressional Budget Office report on the questionable outcomes of the project. The report stated that research would be limited, and it would not have many practical applications.
Jim McLean, press secretary for Slattery, said the congressman had serious reservations about the overall cost of the super collider project.
"He's concerned with the fact the project is 51 percent over budget," McLean said. "The super collider has been funded and an incredible amount of money."
So far the project has cost $2 billion and would cost more than $500 million a year to operate, Slattery said. It
was scheduled for completion in about eight years.
Rep. Jan Meyers, R-Kan., said that she regretted having to vote against the project, but that the potential benefits of the collider could not justify the cost.
"High technology is the whole future of the United States," Riker said. "It's pretty sad to be giving up our technological advantage. Just picking out one project and making that the sacred cow for the budget deficit is denigrating to the budgetary process."
"I would like to see SSC funded but not right now." Meyers said. "It is such a terribly costly program. It is consuming a very large portion of the science funding that might be better spent elsewhere."
Sen. Boh Dole, R-Kan, remains a strong supporter of the project. His press secretary, Walt Riker, said funding for the project should continue.
Riker said that Senate approval to continue to finance the project is still possible.
"It probably has the momentum to pass the Senate in some form," Riker said.
City Commission discusses sidewalk-dining ordinance
Kansan staff report
The City Commission last night discussed a draft ordinance that would allow sidewalk dining in Lawrence.
The ordinance would require that the establishment maintain 70 percent of its sales in food and non-alcoholic beverages. It also would require that the applicant pay an annual fee of $3.50 per square foot for the use of the public sidewalk.
At a meeting in June, Bob Schumm, former city commissioner and owner of the Massachusetts Street Delicatessen, 941 Massachusetts St. requested that the city allow him to use the sidewalk in front of his restaurant for outdoor dining.
At that time, Schumman said he intended to for a dining establishment liquor license. That made it necessary for the city staff to devise a draft ordinance that would exempt Schumman's establishment from a city code for bribing the consumption of alcohol on city property.
The commissioners also discussed the type of barrier that should be used to separate the dining area from the rest of the sidewalk.
Commissioner Bob Sohlbele suggested that the barrier be required to be made of wrought iron. He said he thought it would be important that some sort of uniformity exist in case other restaurants request use of the sidewalk for dining.
"I don't think, as you walk down the street, you're going to appreciate the appearance of 10 or 12 different styles of barrier," he said.
Schulte also said that a wrought-iron fence would not be as obtrusive as a solid barrier.
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