Progress Reported on U.S. - CERN Negotiations on Large Hadron Collider

The U.S. Department of Energy and the European Laboratory for Particle Physics have released a statement on the “Status of U.S./European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) Negotiation on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).” In this and in accompanying DOE background information, a February 26-27 meeting with CERN Council President Dr. Hubert Curien, CERN Director-General Dr. Chris Llewellyn Smith and DOE Energy Research Director Dr. Martha Krebs was summarized. This latest news is not an announcement of an agreement, but an important milestone clearing the way for further agreement negotiations.

According to this information, “CERN has asked the U.S. (and other non-Member States) to contribute to speed up and improve the LHC project.” Negotiations are being conducted about the role which the United States could play in LHC construction. A Working Group is developing a variety of options and services that could provide $225 million +/- $25 million over 8-10 years for construction. Another Working Group is developing “a U.S. scope of work for the ATLAS and CMS international detector collaborations, in coordination with NSF, for a DOE investment in the range of $225 million +/- $25 million over the period.” In addition to this DOE funding, the National Science Foundation has been asked for about $80 million for the detector program. Total U.S. funding could range from $480 million to $580 million, with $530 million thought to be a target.

In describing the international detector collaborations, DOE states, “The U.S. contribution to the detectors will fund the requests of several hundred U.S. physicists who will help to construct the detectors and will then be a part of the LHC experimental program and have access to the results of the LHC, in the same way that foreign scientists participate in detector collaborations at U.S. laboratories.” The U.S. will be the LHC’s largest user nation.

CERN stresses the importance of reaching an agreement by the end of 1996 with NSF and DOE on the U.S. detector collaboration, the joint statement adding “The U.S. contribution to the accelerator will be a key element in the CERN Council decision on the overall schedule which is to be made before the end of 1997.” Working groups will meet over coming months before a Negotiating Team convenes in July.

The FY 1997 DOE budget submission to Congress states “the U.S. will formally negotiate its involvement in the...LHC project, with funding for the LHC increasing from $6 million in FY 1996 to $15 million in FY 1997.” The total FY 1997 High Energy Physics budget request is $679.1 million (see FYI #52.) The NSF Physics Subactivity request states that the budget “supports research activities pursuant to the Large Hadron Collider project, which will enable research opportunities at the very highest energy frontier and at the most fundamental level.” No dollar figure was provided (see FYI #46.)

While the DOE/CERN language is diplomatically worded, it is clear that progress is being made. There is still much to be accomplished; the DOE background paper states: “DOE, however, is being cautious in its negotiations with CERN on the LHC project for several reasons. First, it must assure a cost-effective, viable investment of taxpayer dollars into a major international science project. Second, DOE intends to find the right balance between the scientific opportunities at its own high energy physics facilities and the energy-frontier opportunities at the LHC. Third, a DOE commitment to the LHC project must be sustainable over an 8-10 year period; if we are unable to fully meet our commitment, that could have very serious effects on the LHC project, and have significant repercussions on international cooperation in areas beyond high energy physics.”

FYI #62 will examine the DOE/CERN announcement from the perspective of the 1994 Drell Panel Report.