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Introduction
Most of the world's neutron
sources were built decades ago, and although the uses and demand for neutrons
have increased throughout the years, few new sources have been built. But now
the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of
Science has funded the construction of a new, accelerator-based neutron source,
the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), which will provide the most intense pulsed
neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development.
These "About SNS" pages describe what neutrons are and what unique
properties make them useful for science. They describe how SNS is designed
to produce neutron beams and the experimental instruments that will use those
beams. Finally, they describe how past neutron research has affected our everyday
lives and what we might expect from the most exciting future applications.
As
the needs of our high-technology society
have advanced, so have our demands for
new materials that are stronger, lighter,
and cheaper yet perform well
under severe conditions. |
As the needs of our high-technology
society have advanced, so have our demands for new materials that are stronger,
lighter, and cheaper yet perform well under severe conditions. More than ever,
major research facilities, such as X-ray and neutron sources, are used to understand
and "engineer" materials at the atomic level. Such materials have greatly improved
properties offering both better performance and new applications. A few examples
follow.
Our electronic devices
require smaller and faster components. Commercial and military aircraft as well
as our space probes need new lighter alloys and stronger welds for increased speed
using less fuel. Automobiles are using more high-temperature materials, lightweight
alloys, and plastics to become more fuel efficient and less polluting. Computers
require ever-increasing storage capacity using magnetic materials. New high-temperature
superconducting materials promise more efficient motors and power transmission.
And designer drugs and genetic engineering are revolutionizing medicine and health
care. As the following pages illustrate, neutron-scattering research plays an
important role in all these areas and more.
Powerful
neutron beams will be produced in
the SNS facility by bombarding a mercury
target with energetic protons from
a large accelerator complex. |
Powerful neutron beams
will be produced in the SNS facility by bombarding a mercury target with energetic
protons from a large accelerator complex. The protons will excite the mercury
nuclei in a reaction process called spallation, releasing neutrons that are formed
into beams and guided to neutron instruments. Using these sophisticated instruments,
up to 50 of which will exist when SNS is fully operational, scientists and
engineers will explore the most intimate structural details of a vast array of
novel materials.
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SNS was designed and built as a partnership among six DOE national labs:
Lawrence Berkeley in California, Los Alamos in New Mexico, Argonne in Illinois, Oak Ridge in Tennessee, Brookhaven in New York, and Jefferson in Virginia. |
To design and construct
SNS, a partnership was organized among six DOE national laboratories (Argonne, Brookhaven, Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge).
Such an extensive partnership is a new approach to building a major DOE facility
and a model for the future. The SNS project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, has responsibility
for managing the partnership, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for ultimately
operating SNS, and the other participating laboratories for designing, constructing,
and integrating their parts of the source into the final facility. This partnership
approach allows access to the best technical expertise and most current technologies
available, enabling a design and construction process that makes the most efficient
use of DOE laboratory staff and resources.
SNS, designed with the future in
mind, will be the leading neutron research
facility for many years to come. |
SNS was completed on scheduled in 2006. Like other DOE facilities, SNS will be a user facility
open to scientists and engineers from universities, industries, and government
laboratories in the United States and from foreign countries. The user community
has specified the performance parameters for SNS and will design and use its
instruments. SNS, which is designed with the future in mind, will be the leading
neutron research facility for many years to come.
—Thom Mason, Associate
Laboratory Director, Spallation Neutron Source
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