HC Deb 01 July 1965 vol 715 cc797-8
11. Mr. Crawshaw

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what contribution his Department proposes to make during the next five years to the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in respect of its proposed accelerator project; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Crosland

Her Majesty's Government have agreed in principle to participate in the project for adding intersecting storage rings to the 28 GeV proton synchrotron at a cost of about £28 million. The United Kingdom share will be rather less than £7 million, spread over about 5½ years. The formal decision on the project may be taken by the participating States at the meeting of the C.E.R.N. Council in December, 1965.

The intersecting storage rings will provide European high energy physicists with a unique facility to enable them to maintain a programme of advanced research.

Mr. Crawshaw

I thank my right hon. Friend for that decision, which will enable Europe and this country to maintain their places in nuclear research. Has any decision been arrived at as to a possible site for the even larger accelerator which it is hoped to build in the next decade?

Mr. Crosland

The position relating to the 300 GeV accelerator, to which I assume my hon. Friend is referring, is that the United Kingdom is to support a C.E.R.N. study of this possibility, and to assist the study the British Government have put forward for appraisal a possible site for such a machine near Mundford, in Norfolk, but this does not imply any commitment to participate in building such an accelerator, and it is unlikely that any decision will be taken on this for two or three years.