Spallation
Neutron Source Project Officially Completed
On June 5, 2006, Deputy Secretary of Energy
Clay Sell formally certified the successful
completion of the Spallation Neutron Source
(SNS) project, located at Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (ORNL). During the ceremony where
the Deputy Secretary signed the project’s
Critical Decision 4, Associate Director of Science
for Basic Energy Sciences Dr. Patricia Dehmer
noted that the $1,411.7 million SNS project
has exceeded its baseline objectives, delivering
significantly more technical performance capability
than promised, one month ahead of schedule,
and slightly under budget. In addition, the
project achieved an outstanding safety record
with no lost workday injuries in over 4.2 million
construction work hours.
The SNS project was executed over a period
of about 10 years by a DOE multi-laboratory
partnership led by the SNS Project Office at
ORNL. The other partners were Argonne National
Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos
National Laboratory, and Thomas Jefferson National
Accelerator Facility.
The SNS will become the world’s leading
research facility for study of the structure
and dynamics of materials using neutrons. It
will operate as a user facility that will enable
researchers from the United States and abroad
to study the science of materials that forms
the basis for new technologies in telecommunications,
manufacturing, transportation, information technology,
biotechnology and health.
Briefly, the SNS facility consists of: (1)
a Front End System, where a pulsed beam of negative
hydrogen ions is produced; (2) a Linear Accelerator
or Linac System, where the beam is accelerated
to an energy of 1 billion electron volts; (3)
a Ring and Transfer System, where the negative
ions are converted into protons and then stored
in very short, high intensity pulses and then
directed onto; (4) a liquid mercury Target System,
where neutrons are generated by spallation reactions
and then moderated to lower energies; (5) Instrument
Systems, which receive the neutrons through
beam guides and where experiments are conducted;
and (6) Conventional Facilities and site infrastructure,
including a Central Laboratory and Office Building.
In May 2006, the first neutrons generated at
SNS were used in a spectrometer instrument to
study the molecular structure of a material
sample. During the months ahead, the facility’s
proton beam power will be steadily increased,
and by 2008, the design power level of 1.4 megawatts
onto the target will be reached. At the same
time, the facility’s availability to scientific
users will also increase to full capacity.
For additional information about the SNS,
please visit www.sns.gov.
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