Suburban Underground Vadders

Superconducting Super Collider (SSC)

Ah, this is the story of the Superconducting Super Collider (from here on known as the SSC) is a hopeful and exciting but in the end sad story. 

The SSC was a large scale physics experiment funded by the government to find out what is inside an electron. They intended to do this by spinning electrons in opposite directions in a circle using superconducting magnets so that they will smash into each other at unimaginable speeds and the contents of the subatomic particles can then be seen. This experiment is in line with previous high energy research starting with simple electricity discoveries up to those that brought about research that made the cathode ray tube in your computer monitor possible as well as just about any other electrical device that you use. This was supposed to be the next step.

The experiment offered all kinds of technical spin-offs like superconducting cable technology, cancer therapy, medical diagnostics, new high tech materials, and computer applications. It was approved by president Ronald Regan in 1987 and the first major construction began in 1991. The research labs were a total of 200,000 square feet and more than 2 billion dollars were spent. The U.S. House of Representatives decided in 1993 that there needed to be cuts in funding and this eventually led to its demise in 1993.

 

Ok now that I’ve confused us both, this is simply a big expensive science toy that we built and now it’s mostly abandoned and a neat place to visit. If you want more information and history, visit http://www.hep.net/ssc/

This is where I got most of the above information and I thank them.

The SSC is located about 5 miles away from any major highway just on the edge of the city of Waxahachie, TX. Allva had been there before and after hearing about it from him I knew I would need to stop by. I was by myself on my way to Quake Con, the multiplayer gaming even held in Dallas and since I was in no hurry I decided to find out what I could see. As you can see, there was a storm lingering nearby. It seemed to be approaching from 3 sides but it never actually rained on me while I was there.

Allva said that when he went there before there was a single door to one of the buildings open but when he walked inside it was so dark that he disappeared almost instantly. He didn’t have a light and has been kicking himself ever since because the next time he went, the door was all locked up.

Some of the buildings do have windows but most of them have 2 panes, one that is very darkly tinted and another that is clear. You could tell that people have tried to get in before because some of the windows were missing and replaced with wood.

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