The Spallation Neutron Source

Right now, it is 110 acres of Tennessee countryside. But seven years and $1.3 billion from now, this will be the location of the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). WIST participants learned more about this new project at a lunch program presented by Dr. Lee Magid, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UT). Magid is a member of the SNS steering committee and serves as the point of contact between ORNL and UT.

Funded by the Department of Energy, through a partnership of five of its national laboratories, the SNS will provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific and industrial development, and it will attract researchers and engineers from the international neutron-scattering community.

Neutron-scattering research affects all of us. Do you use credit cards, calculators, CDs, and computer disks? Do you travel by plane and enjoy adjustable seats and shatterproof windshields in your car? Do you plan your weekend around weather forecasts based on satellite information? Neutron scattering research has played a role in the development of these and many other daily amenities. Neutron research also helps researchers improve materials used in high-temperature superconductors, powerful lightweight magnets, aluminum bridge decks, and stronger, lighter plastic products.

The SNS represents an unparalleled opportunity for dramatically important advances that will literally revolutionize the quality of life. From basic physics, chemistry, and biology to applications in materials, medicine, engineering, transportation, imaging, and communications, the world of research endeavors and attributed successes will expand to embrace a far larger and more diverse population of researchers than ever possible.

Perhaps some (or many) of the WIST attendees will one day appreciate this fantastic instrumentation more directly by performing research at ORNL that is tied to the SNS's unique capabilities.

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