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The National Science Foundation (NSF) thanks everyone who shared their perspectives and comments on the scope of the environmental review for a potential future NSF investment in an Extremely Large Telescope in the Northern Hemisphere, the Thirty Meter Telescope, during the 2022 public scoping period, which ended on September 19th. The meeting presentation and other materials from the August public scoping meetings held on Hawai‘i Island are now posted at the Thirty Meter Telescope page under “Resources.” NSF is continuing to review the high volume of comments that were submitted by interested members of the public, agencies, and organizations. |
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NSF intends to amend the process timeline to accommodate the additional time required to fully review and process these comments; the original timeline that was posted during scoping, shown in meeting materials and in Section 3 of the Draft Community Engagement Plan, is now out-of-date. NSF will post updates to the process timeline and the Community Engagement Plan to the website once they are available. We thank you for your patience.
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Importantly, please note that no decision regarding whether NSF will contribute funding to TMT’s construction and operations has been made; any decision to fund TMT would be preceded by a thorough environmental review with public input, a determination of the project’s technical readiness, a review of NSF’s priorities, and other factors. In addition, a decision not to further consider the potential funding of TMT could be made at any time, even before the environmental review is completed. |
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