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IPNS named 'Nuclear Historic Landmark'

by Evelyn Brown

The Intense Pulsed Neutron Source at Argonne was named a Nuclear Historic Landmark by the American Nuclear Society (ANS) at a ceremony May 13. ANS President Gail H. Marcus presented the plaque to IPNS Division Director Ray Teller and Argonne Director Hermann Grunder before a roomful of IPNS employees and retirees.

The award identifies sites or facilities where outstanding physical accomplishments instrumental in the development and implementation of, and the peaceful uses of, nuclear technology took place.

HISTORICAL OCCASION – American Nuclear Society President Gail H. Marcus recently presented a plaque designating the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source a Nuclear Historic Landmark to IPNS Divison Director Ray Teller (center) and Laboratory Director Hermann Grunder.

IPNS is the seventh Argonne facility to be named a Nuclear Historic Landmark. Others are Chicago Pile-1 and -5, Experimental Breeder Reactor-I and -II, Experimental Boiling Water Reactor and the Materials Testing Reactor.

Using pulses of neutrons – uncharged particles in the nucleus of atoms – IPNS probes the structures and motions of material ranging from semiconductors to proteins. The research helps scientists understand material behavior.

The neutron source serves chemists, biologists, physicists, engineers and materials scientists. More than 250 scientists use the facility each year, completing approximately 400 experiments and producing 150 publications.

Since its opening in 1981, IPNS has continually guided the neutron-user community. Even after 20 years, it continues to improve its performance – the IPNS provides neutrons to scientists more than 95 percent of time consistently – and is preparing for a new role in the neutron research world.

Building on the success of IPNS, DOE is constructing a $1.4 billion state-of-the-art neutron research facility called the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Scheduled to open in 2006, the SNS will be the world's most intense spallation source for neutron scattering research with beams 40 to 100 times more intense than those at IPNS. Researchers will be able to perform experiments faster and gather data in greater detail.

Argonne is designing and building the first set of experimental instruments for the SNS.

"IPNS has a magnificent role to educate the large number of people moving into neutron research," said Grunder.

SNS will be able to perform 10 times as many experiments as the IPNS and host 2,000 users. In the next five years IPNS will train the growing neutron-user community to use the SNS.

For more information, please contact Catherine Foster (630/252-5580 or cfoster@anl.gov) at Argonne.