{"id":432845,"date":"2026-03-20T21:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=432845"},"modified":"2026-03-20T21:55:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T20:55:28","slug":"waxahachie-might-have-been-the-fusion-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=432845","title":{"rendered":"Waxahachie might have been the fusion hub"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From CFACT<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Duggan Flanakin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s got a superconducting super collider inside of her and I\u2019m a billion-dollar hole in the ground\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013 Bill Davis, Waxahachie<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen years ago, award-winning journalist Timothy Noah observed that the excitement over the prospect of isolating the Higgs boson (the subatomic \u201cGod particle\u201d) at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva could have happened in Waxahachie, Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Superconducting Super Collider project was the world\u2019s first attempt to use powerful superconducting magnets to create magnetic fields necessary for confining fusion plasma. Completing the SSC, according to<\/a> laboratory director Roy Schwitters, a University of Texas at Austin physicist, would have led to discovery of the Higgs boson (\u201cGod\u201d) particle<\/a> 10 years earlier and attracted 120,000 visitors a year to north Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Clinton\u2019s Energy Secretary Hazel O\u2019Leary, under whose watch the project was canceled, lamented in 1993, \u201cThe superconducting super collider held the promise of taking humanity to the next level of understanding about the origins of the universe and the fundamental dynamics of matter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As stated by Science <\/em>reporter Jeffrey Mervis, this colossal embarrassment \u2013 the cancellation of the project \u2013 provides a classic example<\/a> of the incompetency of the Washington swamp that can likely be traced to unaccountable bureaucrats spending taxpayers\u2019 money in ways no drunken sailor would ever consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staffers proposed projects with lowball budgets, then bureaucrats write regulations that triple real-world costs, and finally (Congress having funneled millions to donors and friends) the project is mothballed. From healthcare to war to nuclear energy, Congress (the authors of the $38 trillion official national debt plus untold trillions in unfunded mandates) is a proven spendthrift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, nuclear energy research was dependent on government funding. Since the Eisenhower years, lowball budgets, bureaucratic overkill, and a lack of commitment to the best science made it virtually impossible to design and build new nuclear power plants \u2013 and the ones completed were way over budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of the superconducting super collider made several mistakes, most notably not convincing the public of long-term benefits beyond satisfying scientific curiosity. They sold the SCSC as a $4.4 billion project, yet people saw the cost balloon to $12 billion with no end in sight. That was enough to embarrass the Capitol Hill crowd that their reelection was far more important than discovering the secrets of the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science writer David Appell laments that the death of the SSC opened the door for the glory of particle physics to move to Europe \u2014 the older, broadly collaborative CERN project. CERN was born<\/a> out of UNESCO in 1951 and formally established as French Conseil Europ\u00e9en pour la Recherche Nucl\u00e9aire <\/em>in 1953, though many call it the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. At its outset, 12 nations signed on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CERN\u2019s own website explains that, since the 1950s, its Directorates have been subdivided into departments and in turn into groups and sections. In short, a typical European bureaucratic labyrinth. They further boast that the massive organization has \u201cmore than fulfilled\u201d scientists\u2019 dreams of \u201cstretch(ing) the limits of our technology and imaginations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s the rub. Many blame the death of the SSC on an obstinate Congress that did not seek international support, yet it was not until 2010 \u2013 55 years into its existence \u2013 that CERN finally discovered the Higgs boson. CERN\u2019s particle accelerator is far less powerful than the one Americans had begun to build before Congress backed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was missing from the American project was the spirit of the Eisenhower Age coupled with the vision of public-private partnerships to provide funding not dependent on short-term political calculations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The spirit that says Americans can do anything because we have the freedom to explore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some young Americans still have that spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take Gitanjali Rao, from a small town in Colorado, who at age 13 invented the Tethys device that detects lead levels in drinking water. Time<\/em>\u2019s first Kid of the Year got a scholarship to MIT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or Ethiopian-born teenager Heman Bekele, named America\u2019s Top Young Scientist for inventing \u2013 at age 14 \u2013 a skin-cancer-treating soap that uses lipid-based nanoparticles to activate immune cells at a price competitive with ordinary soaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first proposal for building CERN\u2019s Large Hadron Collider came in 1984, but not until 2010 did its experiments yield first collisions. That approval only came<\/a> after the U.S. began planning the SSC. As CERN accelerator physicist says, \u201cThe SSC cancellation helped the LHC get approved, and then the U.S. joined the LHC.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Zimmermann also said, \u201cWe need a minimum of competition between projects, because it\u2019s not good to only have one idea. The competing projects are stimulating and challenging each other, pushing colliders to maximum performance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the U.S. remains out of, or rather on the periphery of, the loop in particle physics. CERN talks of building the Future Circular Collider to succeed the LHC, with operations starting in stages in the 2040s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stage 1 (FCC-ee), an electron-positron collider to function as a Higgs factory, would operate for about 15 years. Stage 2, (FCC-hh), a proton-proton collider capable of reaching 100 TeV collision energies (5 times that of the SSC), would not be completed until the 2070s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, China just announced plans to have its Circular Electron Positron Collider (CEPC) with a circumference of 62 miles (larger than the SSC\u2019s 54 miles) completed by 2037. The Chinese envision the CEPC as a \u201cHiggs factory\u201d generating millions of Higgs bosons through electron-positron collisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little over a year after the death of the SSC, Carl Sagan wrote<\/a> of his \u201cforeboding\u201d of a future America as \u201ca service and information economy when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries, when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a few Americans begin to speak of a revival of American industry, maybe it is not too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe we can avoid Sagan\u2019s nightmare of a people \u201cunable to distinguish between what feels good and what\u2019s true\u201d who \u201cslide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness\u201d that looms today over our horizons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t it time for America to be \u201csuper\u201d again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article originally appeared at RealClear Energy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Duggan Flanakin<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Duggan Flanakin is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow. A former Senior Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Mr. Flanakin authored definitive works on the creation of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and on environmental education in Texas. A brief history of his multifaceted career appears in his book, “Infinite Galaxies: Poems from the Dugout.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifteen years ago, award-winning journalist Timothy Noah observed that the excitement over the prospect of isolating the Higgs boson (the subatomic \u201cGod particle\u201d) at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva could have happened in Waxahachie, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":432846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691823192,691818341,691841955,691841954,691832234,691841953],"class_list":["post-432845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cern","tag-china","tag-circular-electron-positron-collider-cepc","tag-fusion-plasma","tag-higgs-boson-or-god-particle","tag-superconducting-magnets","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1OBn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":358319,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=358319","url_meta":{"origin":432845,"position":0},"title":"Dennis Overbye Retiring","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/23\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I often poke fun, mock and criticize the science reporting in\u00a0the\u00a0New York Times.\u00a0 It has been some time, maybe more than a decade, since I have had faith in the Times\u2019 science desk to report straightforward, unbiased and plain-language explanatory science, medical and environmental news.\u00a0 Gone are the days of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/07626805-Dennis-Overbye-Quote-Once-in-a-while-there-was-a-volcanic-outburst.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/07626805-Dennis-Overbye-Quote-Once-in-a-while-there-was-a-volcanic-outburst.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/07626805-Dennis-Overbye-Quote-Once-in-a-while-there-was-a-volcanic-outburst.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/07626805-Dennis-Overbye-Quote-Once-in-a-while-there-was-a-volcanic-outburst.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/07626805-Dennis-Overbye-Quote-Once-in-a-while-there-was-a-volcanic-outburst.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":378791,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378791","url_meta":{"origin":432845,"position":1},"title":"Will Nuclear Fusion Soon Be the \u201cNorm?\u201d","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/19\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The dream of humanity to imitate the forces that created their habitat has been alive for at least as far back as the time when humans with a single language decided to build a city with a tower that reached the heavens. 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