Russian science head urges going ahead on particle accelerator

Russia should move ahead with the building of a particle accelerator in Siberia to study exotic particles, the head of the country's Academy of Sciences says. The study of particles that could unlock deep secrets of physics "is a priority project that must be pushed through," Vladimir Fortov told an assembly of scientists at a meeting of the academy's governing body Tuesday. The proposed facility, dubbed the Super Tau Charm Factory, would be built by the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in the Siberian science city Akademgorodok, RIA Novosti reported. The facility would cost about $500 million, Yevgeny Levichev, one of the scientists who proposed the project, said earlier. Fortov said funding for the project could come from the recently established Russian Science Fund, which offers greater financial capacity than was previously available. The accelerator would slam high-speed electrons and their complimentary anti-particles into one another in an explosion of energy intended to produce a record number of tauon and charm quark exotic particles -- hence the facility's name.