Fermilab seeks community support for linear collider

International Linear Collider

Fermilab wants community support to build a research machine that puts all the components of the universe under a microscope to show how they work together. It might discover clues to how the universe evolved, how many dimensions people live in and how much mass is used to create human beings.

Design

• $8 billion estimated construction cost

• 24-member citizen task force to help design and site the project

• 20-mile tunnel, about 500 feet under the Earth

• Tunnel could sit west of Route 47 on a north-south alignment or cross Fermilab property with about 8.5 miles off-site on the north and south edges of the lab

• 2 linear accelerators hurl electrons and their anti-particles, positrons, toward two dampening rings, likely located on Fermilab

• 14,000 beam collisions every second

• Access shafts with cooling mechanisms every three miles along the tunnel

• $500 million annual estimated budget if Fermilab gets the project, up from about $350 million now

Timeline

• Decision on where to locate the project expected in 2010

• Construction begins in 2013

• 30-year minimum research lifespan

Source: Daily Herald interviews

A quest to bring a multi-billion dollar high-energy physics lab to Batavia could pump millions of dollars into the local and state economy as well as pave the way for new manufacturing and technology jobs across the country.

But few people realize that.

In fact, it seems few people understand -- or care -- what goes on at Fermilab, the federal research institute on the eastern edge of Batavia looking to host the next big thing in physics research: the International Linear Collider.

"When I talk about Fermilab there is one overriding question people have: 'So what?,' " said Roger Vernon, president of the Big Woods-Marmion neighborhood association in Aurora that borders the lab.

That attitude could cost the lab its bid to house the project, Fermi officials fear.

Vernon and several other members of the collider's citizen task force met with scientists and engineers for the first time last Friday to plead for help explaining what the collider is and why it's needed.

Without cooperation between the lab and communities, scientists don't have a chance of being heard above the inevitable din of complaints from residents worried about radiation, property values, well water disruptions and land seizures, said Fermilab scientist and Geneva alderman Chuck Brown.

Resident opposition -- including an 18,000-name petition against the lab's expansion -- helped quash the lab's bid to get the Superconducting Super Collider in 1988.

While resident opposition has not arisen yet, task force members said they have their own concerns about the project. They also imagine many other people will have similar worries if Fermi is selected in 2010 to house the project.

Members of the task force -- including area school leaders, elected officials, neighbors and former critics of the lab -- told scientists they need to prepare themselves to field questions from their neighbors about potential negative impacts from the project.

Task force members, who began meeting in January, said so far they are getting answers to their questions and feel that their criticisms of the project are being taken seriously. That is a welcome change from the limited resident inclusion in the lab's creation and its bid to host the Superconducting Super Collider.

Back then, residents complained they weren't told of the super collider's impacts and design until right before the public hearings, when little design wiggle room remained.

"We want scientists, when they design the (collider), to keep in mind what the community has to say and listen to the community," said Fermilab spokesman Kurt Riesselmann. "We cannot wait for the public hearing to get questions. We need to get questions now."

By opening communication channels in the early design phases, Fermilab officials hope neighbors will embrace the project. The input also is expected to save money in the long run by eliminating costly redesigns brought about by unforeseen neighbor concerns over building materials, siting of access sheds or tunnel placement.

The task force meets monthly. Talks with area neighborhood groups are expected to ramp up as the lab prepares to move beyond the research design phase and into the engineering phase during the next two years.

Funding and government support for the project will determine how detailed the designs become.

The collider will require a 20-mile tunnel located 500 feet under ground. Currently, two design options exist. One puts the entire project west of Route 47, but that would require costly duplications of research machinery already on the Fermi site.

The second option puts the large machinery on Fermi's property and extends a tunnel about 8.5 miles off the site to the north and south. Access tunnels would crop up about every three miles along the tunnel. The access sheds could be moved off the tunnel to avoid taking valuable land and could be either placed largely underground or built as part of new community meeting centers, said Victor Kuchler, the collider's facilities leader.

Task force member Dan Lobbes, director of land protection for the Conservation Foundation, said the opportunity exists to ask the federal government to buy and protect native lands elsewhere in Kane and DuPage counties in exchange for the access sites, which could range from an acre to 10 acres in size.

Lobbes said he is withholding judgment on the project for now, but so far has been pleasantly surprised with the lab's rough designs and openness.

"The point is, if we are going to co-exist with the community from the start we will have to make concessions to the community," Kuchler said. "Somehow we have to reach a consensus (on design) or it is not going to happen."