POOLING BRAINS TO STUDY THE ATOM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000200190021-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 16, 2003
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: August 22, 1970
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

PAlt3 'MOSS Week
,1 RESEARCH
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Po
brahslo sRud-\ the aitOM
? Foreign scientists are
participating in a project at
Russia's reactor center
The soaring cost of research in high
energy physics is activating unprece-
dented international cooperation.
Next month, five American scien-
tists will travel to Protvino, near Ser-
pukhov, 60 mi. south of Moscow and
site of the world's biggest atom
smasher, or "particle accelerator."
They will work with Russian count-
erparts on a six-month project study-
ing the pi meson, a tiny subatomic par-
ticle that is thought to contribute to
the forces that hold the atom's nucleus
together. The Americans will be a part
of a group of 300 foreign scientists at
Protyino, where the Russians have
carved a "science city" out of birch for-
ests to house the giant accelerator.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, the Rus-
sians have been working with the Gen-
eva-based CERN (Conseil Europeen pour
la Recherche Nucleaire) since 1959, and
' using CERN's atom smasher. And physi-
cists all over the world are eagerly
awaiting the completion of another
new atom smasher in the U. S., at Ba-
tavia, Ill, next year (box). Two Russian
scientists spent several weeks at Ba-
tavia this summer, planning possible
experiments on the accelerator.
Because each of the new machines
will cost $250-million or more to build,
the giant atom smasher is not the kind
of research equipment every country
can have. In fact, the high cost has
made high-energy physics the most ex-
pensive of all fields of scientific re-
search. Thus the cooperation.
Method. The basic concept of atomic
particle research is simple. To learn
more about the nature of matter, phys-
icists have to understand the particles
that make up the atom. More than 100
new particles have been discovered in
the past 20 years, ranging from neut-
rinos to heavy baryons. Their sizes are
measured in billionths of inches, their
lives in billionths of seconds.
Because they are so tiny and short-
lived, the subatomic particles are on
the borderline between energy and
matter. The only way to produce them
is, in effect, for the physicist to hurl to-
gether bigger, more manageable par-
ticles, such as protons, at close to the
speed of light. Energy that comes fly-
ing out of the crash is converted briefly
into the subatomic particles.
The physicist achieves the speeds
necessary for this process by "accele-
rating" the protons in a circular tunnel,
which is lined with magnets to hold the
protons away from its walls and speed
them up. He detects the subatomic par-
ticles by the "tracks" they leave as
they travel through a gas-filled or liq-
uid-filled "bubble chamber." To push
protons up to the speed of light re-
,
A massive srnash r at a bargain price
The U.S. will acquire the world's
most powerful atom smasher?
sooner, cheaper, and with a higher
energy level than its pianners origi-
nally expected. Construction at Ba-
tavia, Ill., is going "exceedingly
well," says Edwin L. Goldwasser,
deputy director of the installed in,
known as the Nation al Accelerator
Laboratory.
The atom smasher, being built for
the U. S. Atomic Energy Commis-
sion, is due to start operations next
July, a year ahead of schedule. Its
costs are running below the $250-
million originally estimated. Its de-
signers anticipate that it will pro-
"Luck, good management, and ad-
vancing technology have all helped
to brighten an otherwise bleak
scene in U. S. physics, hard-hit by
budget cutbacks. Several large con-
struction contracts were let for the
accelerator just before President
Nixon's order last September to cut
back federal construction by 75% in
fiscal 1970. Other contracts have
come in below estimates. Says Gold-
wasser: "In a recession, contractors
are hungry. Moreover, they are
ready to move in with no delay."
Economies. So far, about $89-million
has been spent on the NAL, almost
entirely on the accelerator. No
quires huge equipment, however. The
tunnel ring at Protvino is nearly a mile
in diameter and the facility cost an es-
timated $150-million to build. Physi-
cists all over the world covet this accel-
erator's enormous energy of 76-billion
electron volts (or 76 Gev, for Geneva
electron volts). But they insist that
they need an even more powerful
atom smasher, one with an energy
of 1,000 Gev or more to really study
subatomic particles. And applying a
rule of thumb that a particle accel-
erator costs up to $2-million per
Gev, such a machine would cost $2-
billion.
Achievements. The precedents for the
international cooperation that
might achieve this goal have already
been set at Protvino and CERN. Al-
though the accelerator at Protvino
is only three years old, scientists
there have achieved some impres-
sive results.
For one thing, they have dis-
covered matter called anti-helium-
3?roughly comparable to ordinary
helium, but with opposite electrical
charges. And they have cast serious
doubts on accepted theories of how ne-
gatively charged particles interact
with other particles at high energies.
Dr. Roman Sulayev, 44-year-old dep-
uty director of the Center of High
Energy Physics at Protvino, is proud of
the scientific successes at hi,s.accelera-
tor. But he says his colleagues are al-
El-
Rathbun Wilson. Labs are tempo-
rarily housed in other buildings.
Also to promote economy, Wilson
is encouraging competition between
his contractors. As one example, he
has ordered only two-thirds of the
1,000 magnets needed for the accel-
erator's main ring, from two sepa-
rate companies. The company that
does the best production job will get
the order for the remaining third.
Technical advances account for
the boost in the accelerator's rating
to 500 Gev. Designers found that
circuit-switching devices called thy-
ristors could take higher electrical
loads than anticipated, permitting
use of much greater electric power.
The NAL will be operated for the
AEC by Universities Research Assn.
Inc., a consortium of 50 universities.
ey.h.aS everht,11406034.4;c1.12,La__Mi_lnme experiments will be car-
vide enemy levels tu)..to 5Q0-billion
a mitE9mItt cttmie4?, 20 , 6,44,
car-
Geneva igt.filluuu4W-PNAugl t4e NAL staff, most will
over the 200 Gev they had looked for lug, which has been given a lower be performed by scientists from
in early planning, priority by NAL Director Dr. Robert these and other research facilities.
I-I.
?
I'
,,ch technicians supervise the installation of the Mirabelle "bubble chamber.-
" -
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Y J.*l- , -_-.?..,
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- i''.:'7.77 ; ; nonparticipating countries back into
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the fold, and they look for a CERN deci-
__ . ..,...?,,d,,,,,i:4-;,--- ,,,,t-., 1-
sion by this Christmas on whether to
'. --- , ---_-, -1!?"
go ahead.
,
, .4 A vital part of the Adams plan is
that, initially, the CERN accelerator
\.: Ai , iNs...X4:': would get only half the number of
......,....:.:-.1..2 ?...411? - ' -. magnets it is capable of using. This
..,..1r.t Russian accelerator is becoming a focal point for international research. would give it a rating of only 150 Gev.
But space would be left for installation
-
-*ly working to expand its capacity. including an IRM 1800 computer, all to later of much more powerful magnets-
- :.ey have initiated: be returned to CERN. cryogenic superconducting magnets.
* A series of international nuclear At the same time, 12 Soviet scion- These magnets are still in the ex-
r.,:e,cts, under which both.ma.an .a.arl lists in Geneva are working with perimental stage but could permit
-----)lementary research equipment are -highly sophisticated systems that have energy levels of 500 Gev to 800 Gev. If
- 1g shipped to Protvino-from-Europe been developed at CERN-a fast ejector they do not work out, the accelerator
----,.! the U. S. system to switch particles out of the would get another set of iron-core
. A program to explore whether super- accelerator and radio frequency par- magnets, for a maximum rating of 300
--.!;cting magnets, now experi- tide separators. These systems will be Gev.
can be used to boost its rating. shipped to Protvino in about a year for Russia, too. Superconducting magnets,
----,-.K-e!ration. The closeness of the Rus- permanent installation there, which are under intensive research at
,--.-European cooperation is illus- Payoff? Soviet ties with CERN could pay Britain's Rutherford High Energy
"i'od by the projects under way at off for the Russians if and when a 300- Laboratory, among other places, are at
'mo. A dozen French scientists Gev European accelerator is built. the heart of Soviet research to boost
are installing a huge, 6,000-liter Years. of argument over financing and the rating of the Protvino accelerator,
' ''',i, chamber called Mirabelle. An- locating this proposed atom smasher too. According to Sulayev, use of super-
' 'r 40 Frenchmen will join them caused seven of CERN's 13 partners, in- conducting magnets would boost the
' 'f. components of the $9-millionatom-smasher's energy level three to
: ' ', built at the French Atomic Superconducting magnets eight times-that is, to a maximum of
'. '4/ Commissariat's Saclay Re- would sharply boost more than 600 Gev. "A lot of work re-
- Center outside Paris, are ship- atom smashers' energy mains to be done in this field-but it is
; * to Russia and assembled there, a definite possibility," he says.
will remain French property, eluding England, to opt out of the proj- Officially, the U.S. has made no
Ir:11 be used by the French and ect. commitments to cooperate with Prot-
:" 'Is under a five-year agreement. Last Julie, however, project director vino. This winter's visit of the Amer--
cooperation is even Dr. John B. Adams, a Briton, urged can team, headed by Dr. Darrell J.
*' High energy physicists shuttle CERN to adopt a radically new proposal. Drickey of the University of Cantor-
' ;triii forth between Russia and Under its terms the new accelerator nia, Los Angeles, is based on an ex-
,.-- rland, where CERN has a 28-Gev would straddle the Swiss-French bor- change of letters between Dr. Glenn T.
smasher. A formal CERN-Soviet der at Meyrin and use a 28-Gev atom Seaborg, chairman of the U. S. Atomic
' --mf.rit has been in effect for three smasher that is already there as part of Energy Commission, and A. Pet-
? Arid a dozen CERN scientists at its system. rosyants, chairman of the Soviet State
' 'tar, have lawistr,,, Vecj, Felictg lease 110 tfe11922N Pelks11119 021:00313171RIRKI2Olit1400211_4the Utilization of
, - ,,r projects, ?egon in 1968, to quicker than earlier proposals; it could Atomic Energy. But scientists in both
/ particles called heavier neutral mean only eight years' construction countries are hoping for stronger links.
' Last April. the CERN Froun and a cost of $251-million. Therefore. Says Sulavev: "A wider, more formal
.) S
,
Protvino, the site of the accelerator,
Is one of the Soviet's "science cities."
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ATTACHMENT
For over a year the US has been considering the export of
large computers to Serpukhov and Yerevan to be used in high
energy physics and other atomic energy research. In
January 1970 US computer experts agreed that installation of
a computer of the CDC 6600 class could proceed without threat
to national security provided the following conditions prevailed:
)
Closed shop, with systems programming done by US
personnel only, adequate surveillance and assurance of non-use
during any off hours.
(b) Batch computing only (no terminals).
(c) Fortran programs only, with adequate documentation
required to ensure efficient operation and for verification
purposes.
(d) Complete recording input and sampling of output.
(e) Sampling of internal computer executions.
(f) Creation in the United States of a part-time group
of high-energy physicists, computer center managers, and weapons
designers to analyze a small sample of the recorded data.
Approved For Release 2003/04/22 : CIA-RD F171270643iROD 2001900214
'J LUL e4,1
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? iwu
? .... 'Inside IT asitirtgtoit .:.. ' .-' . - ' - : By ROBERT S. ALLEN and. '
.?.???,,??, .
- ? ? ? ? - ? JOILX A GOLDSMITH
! WASH INGTON ? Some know-. ?
P.
oi.p., eedy CoaTiunte,re ' ledgeable government experts
think it was only a lag in Rus-
? Ji , s:a's computer technology midi
\
VT
itycl . * ,., ?? enabled U.S. astronauts to beat
)....).0v-rip-r, R ? Soviet cosmenauts to a landing
on the moon.
. . 14-1 "4:--1
,
,
,
,
,
,.
? Army s research and develop-
ment. chief, recently told a
dosed-door congressional hear-. ?
lag that he has been so In-
formed. Betts testified that Rus-
sia has caught up With the Um- ?
tot' States "in most fields of
technology' of military Interest."
The general did not elaborate.
It is clear, however, that the
some 'aspects of nuclear tech-
Riissians are actually ahead in
v,
nology, ? notably In data ob-
jained from the most recent
Series of. atmospheric tea's, in-
eluding blasts at high altitude.
Vice Adm. Hyman G. Rick-
,ver, the tough-talking "father"
of U.S. nuclear submarines, says
Russian atomic sub are begin-
fling to. outstrip the ones which
...he has sired. The Kremlin also
!is speeding the development of
.high performance aircraft,
" Generally, the Russiars are
aggressively paesaing military
research and development. pit-
grams at a pace which is worry-
?; Lig Pentagon planners.
All this explainN why sotr.e
U.S. exports ? including- Rick-
over watt to guard the U.S.
;lead In computer technology as
a key to technological'advances '
.In other areas. If also helps
to explain why Soviet Scientists
would like to erase the U.S.
aelvantage.
SCIENTIM PAY.OPPS *
.In trying to obtain computer
? technology front the United.
States ? or, at least, get the
. use rif highrperforrnanee U.S. ?
computers --Russian experts
have even resorted to a kind
At quid pro quo scientific pay-
.,off. ? Hero is the full story of
? ',one such attempt which was re-
ently' dekeibed in. censored
? testimony of the Senateellouse
Atomic, Emery Committee.'
i In February and March of
l'IO39, five high energy physicists
tram the United States traveled
to Russia to sec whether they
'could use the Russian particle
? accelerator .at Serpukhov. That
'giant atom-smasher 14 now the
most powerful in the world.
- The group of U.S. phYsicists
was headed by Dr. Wolfgang
Panofsky of Stanford. Panofslcy
is the director of the Atomic
Thergy Commission's mile-long
linear particle accelerator at
.Stanford and was, of course, In-
terested in the Soviet facility.
Approved For Release 2003/0 Qf A m-1
Rata; h
? .... ?
a
any access by U.S.-reientists
the accelerator at Serputclic4
would be contingent on the Uni-
ted States' supplying a highly
sophisticated U.S.4aullt central
computer facility for use in data
analysis. It was even said that
the Russians would accept some
U.S. controls on use of the .coni-
pu'er.
V,Itat ? the Russians wanted
twas a CDC 660) computer, or its
equivalent, from the Unitei.
, States. Manufactured by Con-e.
trot Data Corp., the CDC is "a.
high-speed ? computer which
used in U.S. weapons programa,'
IBM makes a kanewilat cimi-?
lar computer facility.
The Soviet demand for a
scientific quiclepro-quo was ap-
parently nothing now. French
scientists who wanted access ?tO
the big, billion electron volt
accelerator, had been told that
the price would be apply of a
bubble-chamber there.
DEMAND VETOED ? Pane?-
sky's return to the United States
with the Russian computer eeee
rnand apparently precipitate an
argument in the government's
scientific community over \site-
Vier thee sophisticatedsophisticated computer
should be supplied.
In the late summer of 113,
the Atomic Thergy Commission
made a survey of the pros and
cons of sending a CDC DM
computer to Serpukhov. Some
government scientists who saw
the AEC survey thought it un-
derestimated the risks involved
In ,granting an export license for
the computer.
' That \V3S Rickover's
Asked to comment on the AEC
study in Septeml.aer .1t0, Rick-
- oVer concluded that the Sovet
purchase of such a sophisticated
computer would not be in the
.public interest, even if the Uni-
ted slates were to retain some
controls over the computer's une.
Shortly thereafter, the Senate-
House Atomic Energy Commit-
tee became Interested in the
proposed sale. Committee mem-
bers expressed concern about
supplying the computer and, in
the words of Chairman Chet
Holiteld, DeCal., "We stopped
It." ?
Note ? High speed computerd
from e the United States have
been made rather freely avail-
able to free world nations. Seven
of the CDC CMOs have been in-
stalled in prance, and the faci-
lities have been installed in
Ezigland, . Switzerland, Italy,
Sweden, West Germany and
Australia.
Certain restrictVems are sup-
posed to be in effect with re-
spect to France ? and also
Israel ? to prevent the use of
advanced U.S. computer tech-
ig9otmigi nuclear %sea-
programs.
RO
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'S