Could The Tevatron Be Shut Down Even Earlier Than Planned?

We all know that the DOE has decided not to continue the running of the Tevatron beyond FY2011. It turns out that with the proposed House of Representatives budget, the severe budget cuts being proposed for DOE's Office of Science would curtail a lot of the operations at all US National Laboratory, including Fermilab. This could adversely affect the running of the Tevatron and could possibly shut it down even sooner.

Now things are looking even bleaker for Fermilab and the Tevatron. The Fermilab Neighborhood blog reports that lab director Pier Oddone said at an all-hands meeting February 15 that budget cuts proposed in the House of Representatives would force a number of drastic measures at Fermilab. Among them: an immediate shutdown of all accelerators, two-month staff furloughs, and probable layoffs of some 400 employees.

Things just go from bad to worse.

Zz.