Accelerator Type Decision in the Future Plans for Nuclear Physics Research

Abstract

In 1962, the Science Council of Japan recommended to the government a future plan for nuclear research proposed by the Special Committee for Nuclear Research. At the center of the plan was the construction of Japan’s first internationally competitive high-energy accelerator. In the debate over the accelerator type, while the technical considerations on the initial novel proposal failed to converge, skeptics took the lead and the majority eventually settled on a conventional and more reliable type. This is a case that illustrates the characteristics of an advanced large-scale device, where it is impossible to verify nor falsify its design before construction, and a social decision is required. The conflict over the type and its termination, however, contributed to the realization of the project by increasing the confidence of the parties involved, and also encouraged the formation of an independent group of high-energy researchers.