It would have a beam intensity of about one ampere, a million times that of the synchrocyclotron. The plan offered much. The Commission was worrying about procuring enough uranium to fuel its reactors and fill its bombs. There are so many important things which can't be done with a pile, but need some sort of accelerator. One never knows when a new process of military importance will demand the existence of an accelerator.
Scale is given by the two figures at lower right.
The injector is at near end, target at far. The vacuum vessel for Mark I went up before its enclosure, 1952. The AEC approved construction of the prototype accelerator, Mark I, after Truman's decision to pursue the Super in January 1950, and design of the production machine, Mark II, after the Korean war started that summer. Mark I was designed to produce polonium for use in the weapons program and in radiological warfare. Mark II's target arrangement would permit manufacture of tritium and plutonium as well.