Bevatron Launched

Abstract

PUBLICITY accorded to power reactor development and to noises from the Marshall Islands notwithstanding, the Atomic Energy Commission still has a healthy interest in those parts of its programs which are devoted to fundamental physical research. A prominent example is the AEC-financed $9 million Bevatron recently completed at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley. Housed in a circular building that rests in a depression of Charter Hill overlooking the University campus, the 10 000-ton proton accelerator was first successfully operated at an initial energy level of 20 Mev on February 15th. By March 12th the energy had been gradually increased to 5 billion electron volts and, according to a University announcement, efforts are continuing to reach the machine's full design energy of 6.25 Bev.