Editing Synchrotron (section)

=== As part of colliders ===
Until August 2008, the highest energy collider in the world was the [[Tevatron]], at the [[Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory]], in the [[United States]]. It accelerated [[protons]] and [[antiprotons]] to slightly less than 1 [[TeV]] of kinetic energy and collided them together. The [[Large Hadron Collider]] (LHC), which has been built at the European Laboratory for High Energy Physics ([[CERN]]), has roughly seven times this energy (so proton-proton collisions occur at roughly 14 TeV). It is housed in the 27&nbsp;km tunnel which formerly housed the Large Electron Positron ([[LEP]]) collider, so it will maintain the claim as the largest scientific device ever built. The LHC will also accelerate heavy ions (such as [[lead]]) up to an energy of 1.15 [[PeV]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

The largest device of this type seriously proposed was the [[Superconducting Super Collider]] (SSC), which was to be built in the [[United States]]. This design, like others, used [[superconducting magnet]]s which allow more intense magnetic fields to be created without the limitations of core saturation. While construction was begun, the project was cancelled in 1994, citing excessive [[cost overrun|budget overruns]] &mdash; this was due to naïve cost estimation and economic management issues rather than any basic engineering flaws. It can also be argued that the end of the [[Cold War]] resulted in a change of scientific funding priorities that contributed to its ultimate cancellation. However, the tunnel built for its placement still remains, although empty. 
While there is still potential for yet more powerful proton and heavy particle cyclic accelerators, it appears that the next step up in electron beam energy must avoid losses due to [[synchrotron radiation]]. This will require a return to the [[Linear particle accelerator|linear accelerator]], but with devices significantly longer than those currently in use. There is at present a major effort to design and build the [[International Linear Collider]] (ILC), which will consist of two opposing [[linear accelerators]], one for electrons and one for positrons. These will collide at a total [[center of mass]] energy of 0.5 [[TeV]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}