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WASHINGTON NEWS Report to OSTP Cites SNS, Instrument Upgrades as “Top Priorities” in Neutron Scattering An interagency working group (IWG), appointed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to assess the state of neutron-scattering facilities in the United States, released its final report in June, calling for the timely completion of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) as a top priority and for continued investment in instrument replacement and upgrades at existing source facilities. Comprising representatives from various federal agencies involved in the use of the major U.S. neutron facilities, the IWG was charged with conducting an in-depth review of the status of existing facilities and recommending ways to maximize their use for U.S. science programs. Neutron scattering in the United States is widely recognized as an essential measurement tool for researchers in a variety of scientific disciplines—including physics, chemistry, biology, materials science, earth science, and engineering—but the IWG found that Europe and Japan have eclipsed this country’s once-strong leadership role in developing the technology. George Wignall, who heads the smallangle scattering programs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), agrees. He said, “The U.S. neutron-scattering facilities have lost their earlier lead over the past couple of decades. Thus, U.S. scientists have had less access to world-class facilities than their colleagues in, say, Europe, which now holds the lead in both reactor-based and pulsed (spallation) instrumentation.” Yet there are strong signs that neutron scattering is poised for potential rebirth. The SNS now under construction at ORNL will provide the highest-performance neutron-source capability available worldwide when it is completed in June 2006. Also, major upgrades are under way at the ORNL High Flux Isotope Reactor. The project includes 14 new or improved neutronscattering instruments, especially for cold neutrons. In addition, the development of a new major cold-neutron capability at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has resulted in substantial growth in the number of users. It is now the most widely used neutron facility in the United States and the only source recognized by the IWG as providing a broad range of world-class capabilities—
an achievement Mike Rowe, director of the NIST’s neutron research facilities, attributes in part to the agency’s commitment to users and to ongoing investments in new and improved instrumentation. Despite these bright spots, the field has suffered major setbacks in the last decade. The Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) project was canceled in 1995 before construction began. While several proposals were made to add cold-neutron capability to Brookhaven’s High Flux Beam Reactor source, they were never acted upon, and the facility was closed permanently in 1999 following a two-year shutdown after the discovery of a tritium leak from the fuel-storage pool. The IWG also concluded that the Los Alamos Neutron Science Cente
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