Super Collider Magnet Program Pushes Toward Prototype

The most, expensive component of the proposed multi‐billion‐dollar Superconducting Super Collider is the double ring of nearly 8000 17‐meterlong superconducting bending magnets required to hold its countercirculating beams of 20‐TeV protons in their 52‐mile course. Thus the magnet program will soon undergo particular scrutiny as Congress begins to consider the President's request for $363 million in fiscal 1989 for firstyear SSC construction and continuing R&D. Some parts of the magnet program, such as the development of the superconducting cable, the cryogenic system and the achievement of good dipole‐field quality, have been extremely successful.