Illinois officials from Du Page County are working to see that President Bush`s next budget contains an initial $57.3 million for Fermilab programs that are expected to cost about $190 million over the next three years.
U.S. Rep. J. Dennis Hastert, a Yorkville Republican whose district includes the Batavia high-energy physics lab, is spearheading the lobbying effort with help from officials of Gov. James Thompson`s Washington office.
The focus of the Washington effort is the so-called Fermilab III project. Congress last year approved $4.6 million for a new linear accelerator, and about $12 million in Fermilab III-related equipment is awaiting congressional approval in the coming days.
The accelerator, a component of Fermilab III, is projected to cost $23 million, an Energy Department spokesman said.
However, the centerpiece of Fermilab III is the $160 million Main Injector, which Hastert and Thompson aides are seeking to have included in the Energy Department budget next year and in subsequent years until the project is finished.
According to Fermilab sources, the injector would replace the lab`s existing four-mile ring, becoming the new springboard for critical experiments into the structure of matter-specifically, the search for the ”top quark.”
”It`s pure research. Its ultimate use is hard to predict, if you are asking for a practical spinoff,” a Fermilab representative said.
The original four-mile ring, which is contained in a tunnel 10 feet in diameter, will no longer be used if the Fermilab III Main Injector is funded by Congress, a Fermilab spokesperson said.
In 1985, Fermilab began operating the Tevatron-a trillion-electron volt accelerator that leaped ahead of the main ring in technology by employing superconducting magnets. The main injector will feed accelerated protons into the Tevatron, the world`s highest energy proton collider.
Illinois officials want the main injector money placed in the fiscal 1992 budget, which the president isn`t expected to unveil until early next year. Congress, however, must review the projects before appropriating any new money.
Some of the participants involved are reluctant to talk about their plans to secure the funding because they believe their chances improve with the less they say publicly.
Last week, the Illinois delegation learned that $50 million in additional funding for the advanced photon source at Argonne National Laboratory was rejected by key House committees, a setback that some claim made the state`s lawmakers look ineffective. That`s something they don`t want to repeat with Fermilab III.
Fermilab officials have already submitted their main injector proposals for Fermilab III to the Energy Department. That move came after the April report by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel urging the department to make the main injector project an ”immediate” priority.
”(HEPAP) is the principal advisory panel to the Office of High Energy Physics at the Department of Energy. Its advice is seriously considered by the office,” said Energy Department spokesman Jeff Sherwood.
