Soviet, European and American scientists in the past much more powerful particle accelerators They were competing with each other to build. These accelerators built would enable important work in nuclear and particle physics. Accelerators accelerate particles to very high speeds and energies, allowing them to collide with each other; provided knowledge in many areas of science.

Construction of these machines, known as colliders, began in Italy, California, and Novosibirsk in the 1950s at about the same time. Between the 1960s and 1980s, it was found in France, Italy, Siberia, California, Massachusetts, Germany, and Japan. powerful colliders was built.

The Soviets begin to produce the most powerful accelerator:

Between 1963 and 1974, Soviet physicists named VEP-1, VEPP-2, and VEPP-2M. three different bumper cars they built. By the 1980s, however, Soviet work on the collider had begun to slow down. Soviet scientists and other tech-savvy nations are building next-generation colliders In the technology of the 1970s they were stuck.

In 1983, the Soviet governmentAccelerator Storage Facility (UNK)’ The project was approved and started. Within this project 21 kilometers long A huge scientific facility would be built, containing a main tunnel Dozens of supporting buildings and researchers in the facility 3,000 giga-electron volts (GeV) powerat the time to the Soviets the world’s most powerful particle accelerator would present.

About 1 billion Soviet rubles were invested in this project. Construction of the project began at the Institute of High Energy Physics, about 100 kilometers southwest of Moscow. This institute was founded in the late 1960s. With the U-70 proton synchrotron producing 76 GeV energy became famous all over the world.

According to the Soviet plan, the U70 is the new gas pedal. in the first acceleration phase would be used. The work of the Soviets in 1983 and 1986 was extremely slow, and during this time only 1.5 kilometers could be completed. In 1987, however, the work increased significantly. Unpredictably at the time, the Soviets had purchased two modern tunnel boring machines from the Canadian company Lovat.

Construction of the project accelerated, but the economy also deteriorated:

in 1989 70% of the tunnela 2.5-kilometer project that will transfer the particles from U-70 to the UNK. The ‘injection tunnel’ is 95% was completed. Excited by all this acceleration, scientists conducted their first experiments. mid 90s they expected to do.

But just at that moment, the Soviet mega project financial difficulties started to live. Financial support for the project slowly froze due to economic and political reforms, and the USSR lost most of its allies in the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the UNK project came to an end. The new government should leave the project alone. it will be expensivethat the project is buried with water threaten the ecological balance. they had thought. Therefore, the construction of the project for 4 years continued and the project’s main tunnel was completed in 1994.

But even if the tunnel is completed, the equipment placed inside could seriously shake the economy. like that 2,500 planned to be placed superconducting magnets only a few dozen was delivered to be installed. After that, the end of the project slowly started to come into view.

The project was completely canceled:

CERN in 1998 Large Hadron Collider started construction. However, this year was also the time when Russia had difficulties paying its foreign debts. Hence the UNK project completely cancelled it happened. The 21-kilometre tunnel built under the project still stands in the project area and is fitted with emergency lighting, ventilation and a tunnel collapse prevention system. keeps running.

This did not mean that Russia stopped producing a particle accelerator. CERN signed an agreement with the Institute of High Energy Physics in 1993 and under this agreement About 700 Russian scientists Began participating in the $4.75 billion Large Hadron Collider project.