On April 24, 1990, Dr. James F. Decker, Acting Director, Office Enclosed are the Prior to that hearing, you submitted written questions for If you have any questions, please have your staff call PRE-HEARING QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR THE APRIL 24, 1990, HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES UNITED STATES SENATE WITNESS: JAMES F. DECKER ACTING DIRECTOR OF ENERGY RESEARCH QUESTIONS FROM SENATOR FORD 1. Cost Estimate Question 1: The sum of as-spent dollars for the SSC project from FY 1988 Answer: The Department is in the process of refining the cost estimates for the SSC project and is conducting a number of independent reviews of the SSC Laboratory's estimate. These reviews will be completed in the June time frame. The Department plans to have validated a cost estimate, along with a baseline design and schedule, in August of this year. A report on this new cost estimate will be provided to the Congress at that time. In the meantime, it is fair to say that the estimated cost Answer: The details will be provided to the Congress when the final cost estimate for the SSC project, along with the baseline design and schedule have been validated by the Department. This is expected to occur in August 1990. Question: How did the need for this cost increase become apparent? Answer: The need for this cost increase is related to two major factors: better estimates of schedule, updated funding profiles, labor, material, and tooling costs; and technical changes. The technical changes arise from two technical factors related to so-called persistent currents in the magnets that were unknown at the time of the 1986 conceptual design and beam stability requirements to reduce the number of particles lost from the beam as it makes the 10 million turns necessary at injection. These two factors result in the need to increase the injection energy from 1 to 2 TeV, to increase the magnet bore diameter from 4 to 5 centimeters, and a slight increase in the circumference from 52 to 54 miles. |