Abandoned Superconducting Super Collider (aka the Desertron)

In 2014, WebUrbanist featured what was intended to be the world’s largest particle accelerator, lying abandoned beneath the Texas farmland south of Dallas. The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC), dubbed the Desertron, incorporated 14 miles of underground tunnels and was intended to smash records set by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva. But the project was deemed too expensive and the unfinished tunnels were closed off. According to WebUrbanist, the Superconducting Super Collider’s fate was sealed in part by the phenomenal cost of removing the millions of tons of soil that had to be excavated to create the more than 50 miles of planned tunnels. The blog writes: “Construction on what was to be the largest particle accelerator in the world started in the early 1980s but funding cuts in the early 1990s caused the entire project to be shut down. By that time, billions of dollars were already spent and the expected tag had tripled from 4 to 12 billion, 17 shafts were dug and 14 miles of tunnel excavated (out of a total of 51 planned).” With cancellation nigh, proposals were made to turn the unfinished Superconducting Super Collider into a data centre. But despite a dedicated power grip and fibre optic system, the plan was never realised. The site near Waxahachie, Texas was later purchased by a chemical company amid public opposition, but is understood to remain empty still. It wasn’t long before locals dubbed what was once poised to become the world’s largest particle accelerator “the Desertron”. WebUrbanist wrote: “Many factors have been cited as contributors to its abandonment, including the end of the Cold War with Russia and the comparable amounts being budgeted for the United States’ contribution to the International Space Station – at the time, it seemed to many to that spending as much on the SSC as the ISS would be folly.”