European Spallation Source: ISIS

ESS News, 15th December, 2000

Letter by the ESS Executive to the Editor of Physics World
12th December, 2000

Your news story last month (December p12) reported the latest progress on the European Spallation Source (ESS) as it moves from the drawing board to reality. However, the story contained some inaccuracies and we believe that readers will welcome the latest facts.
First of all, the decision about where to site the ESS is a difficult and completely open issue, but one that has not yet been made. At least four or five countries will probably put forward realistic proposals to host the project.
Last November the council of the ESS took some important decisions. As your story mentioned, the council aims for a funding decision in 2003, which would allow the ESS to be operational in 2010 - either as a stand-alone facility or as part of a multi-purpose one. The council will also decide this summer whether to add a long-pulse target station to the short-pulse one.
Meanwhile, members of a science working group are collaborating with instrumentation experts to determine the best suite of instruments for the ESS to address future scientific questions. Their conclusions, which will be the focus of a forthcoming workshop that the ESS and the European Neutron Scattering Association (ENSA) are organising for May 2001, will also guide the final decision on the performance specification for the ESS.
The Jessica experiment mentioned in the article - in which a 1.3 GeV beam was delivered to a mock-up target - is important, but it is not the only one. For example, a feasibility study is currently underway for a high-intensity proton accelerator for condensed-matter research, which could also be used for physics and engineering research into transmutation and other applications. Apart from technical considerations, what will determine if this is a realistic option will be the total cost and the way in which communities other than the well-organized condensed-matter researchers could contribute to an affordable solution.
The laboratories forming the council of ESS, along with the national research councils, national governments, the European Science Foundation and the Commission of the European Community will now have to work on a mechanism that enables Europe to decide whether to build the ESS and other large-scale facilities over the next few years.

Peter Tindemans
Chairman, ESS council
Kurt Clausen
ESS project director
Dieter Richter
ESS science co-ordinator
Uschi Steigenberger
Secretary, ESS council

Physics World December 2000 v.13 no12 p12

Neutron source moves forward

The World's most powerful pulsed neutron facility, the European Spallation Source (ESS), moved a step closer to reality recently when researchers delivered a 1.3 GeV beam to a mock-up target called Jessica. The beam had a repetition rate of 0.1 Hz and an intensity of 8x108 protons per pulse; the time-of-flight spectrum was measured from a provisional water moderator. The work, carried out at the COSY proton accelerator in Jülich, Germany, is designed to produce the optimum target design (Physics World May 1997 p5).
The timetable for completion of the ESS changed earlier this year and a construction proposal is now due in 2003. But Kurt Clausen of Denmark's Risø National Laboratory, which is responsible for the ESS source and instrument development, says that the facility should still be ready for experiments in 2010. this is no later than originally planned, but depends on the project receiving the necessary backing at the next ESS Council meeting.
The ESS will be hosted by the Forschingszentrum Jülich in Germany. It will operate at an energy of 1.3 GeV, have a peak thermal neutron flux of 2x1017 cm-2s-1 and is projected to cost Euro 1-2bn, depending on the final design. It will be use for research in physics, chemistry, biology, materials science and other fields.

Computational Accelerator Physics Grand Challenge: Accelerator Testbeds for HPC Design Tools

Next-Generation Spallation Neutron Sources

Currently there are two types of neutron sources for neutron scattering research: fission reactor sources and pulsed accelerator-based spallation sources. Due to the difficulty of bringing new reactors online in many countries (consider, for example, the recent cancellation of the Advanced Neutron Source), the United States and the European Community are now designing the next generation of spallation sources to serve the needs of the neutron scattering community. In particular, the United States is designing a short pulse spallation source (SPSS) that will be built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the European Community is designing the European Spallation Source (ESS). Pulsed spallation sources, like that at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), are extremely important tools for materials science and biological science research. They have led to developments in advanced composite materials, polymers, new-generation catalysts, magnetic materials, and biomolecular structure determination.

Next Linear Collider (NLC) for High Energy Physics

While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to be built at CERN, offers an entry into the TeV center-of-mass energy regime to explore new particle physics phenomena, a TeV scale electron-positron collider, the Next Linear Collider (NLC), will provide a complementary program of experiments with unique opportunities for both discovery and precision measurements. At present, there is great international interest in the NLC as prototype facilities in the United States (SLAC), Japan (KEK), and Europe (DESY and CERN) are coming close to completion. These test accelerators will soon be able to answer questions of an optimal design choice and the estimated cost of such a collider. There is consensus among high energy physicists that both the LHC and the NLC will be required to understand the nature of physics at the TeV scale, and to see how new phenomena fit together with known particles and interactions into a grander picture.
Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
A leading candidate in the development of 4th Generation Angstrom-wavelength sources is the Linac-driven Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Based on analytical and computer studies of this device, peak powers of more than 100 GW are expected to become available over broadly tunable wavelength ranges, opening up a wide range of important scientific and technological applications in research areas ranging from the fundamental properties of materials to biological imaging. At present, projects for developing LCLS facilities have been initiated at SLAC, BNL, and DESY, with projected completion dates ranging from 1998 to 2001. More recently, due to the high levels of interest stimulated by scientific workshops held at SLAC, DESY, and the ESRF, other synchrotron radiation facilities (e.g., the APS at Argonne National Laboratory and KEK in Japan) have initiated exploratory LCLS programs.

Story last updated at 11:23 a.m. on Tuesday, July 17, 2001

Magid shares goals of Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences

by Paul Parson
Oak Ridger staff

Lee Magid's face lit up with smiles as she talked about the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences.
"It's great to be involved in incubating something like this," Magid said during an interview Monday afternoon. She was recently named acting director for the proposed institute, which will give scientists access to Oak Ridge neutron research facilities, particularly the Spallation Neutron Source and the High Flux Isotope Reactor.
And Magid is no stranger to the proposed institute. Back in 1996, she was involved in the initial talks for the project with officials from the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Magid said ground is expected to be broken on the institute in 2003. It will be located in the SNS laboratory/office complex and in a housing and conferencing facility to be constructed near the SNS using $8 million in state funding.
The institute, according to Magid, will serve as an intellectual center for the neutron sciences and work toward developing programs for researchers, students and higher education faculty who will use Oak Ridge's neutron facilities.
Fellowship and sabbatical programs at the institute are expected to attract neutron scientists from all over the world. The institute will also foster joint faculty positions between ORNL and its university partners and assist multi-institutional research teams in developing new applications involving neutron scattering and other uses of neutron beams.
As part of its education and outreach mission, the institute will organize workshops and summer schools for new and experienced researchers, student and faculty programs for researchers-in-residence and educational partnerships with schools and colleges. The institute will also partner with area colleges in developing the workforce needed to operate the $1.4 billion SNS project, which is expected to be completed in 2006.
The SNS will be used for scientific research and development of a variety of industrial materials.
Neutron scattering research has been responsible for improvements in jets, computer disks, shatterproof windshields, and stronger, lighter plastics. Neutrons have also been used in medical research for such studies as determining how bones mineralize during development and how they decay during osteoporosis.
Six Department of Energy laboratories -- Argonne, Brookhaven, Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley, Los Alamos and ORNL -- are collaborating on design and construction of the SNS atop Chestnut Ridge. ORNL is managing the partnership and is integrating each of the labs' design contributions into the facility.
Magid pointed out that the work at SNS and the surrounding facilities will also serve as a "test bed" for future neutron research efforts, particularly the European Spallation Source. A plan for the proposed $1.5 billion facility is expected to be submitted for funding by 2003. However, the European Spallation Source is already being touted as a more powerful research facility than the SNS and a planned Japanese neutron research project.
As for the future of the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Magid said the goal is to name a permanent director within two years but also said she does not plan to pursue the job.
In addition to her acting director duties, Magid also serves as the ORNL/SNS liaison for UT's Office of Research and Information Technology and is a chemistry professor at the university.
She received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Rice University in 1969 and her doctorate in chemistry from UT in 1973. She previously served as vice president for research and graduate studies at the University of Kentucky from 1991 to 1994, as associate dean for research and resources development within UT's College of Liberal Arts from 1987 to 1990 and as a part-time employee of ORNL's Chemistry Division from 1979 to 1984.

Developments

The "Richter - Springer Report" [Fejl! Henvisningskilde ikke fundet.] provides an overview of the 26 major neutron sources available for neutron research in the OECD countries and in Russia. Half of these neutron sources are in the European region. Most of the sources incorporate nuclear reactors that were built in the 1950s and 1960s. For technical reasons, the majority of these reactors will reach the end of their useful lives between the years 2005 and 2015. The study shows that less than one third of the present neutron sources will be available in the year 2015. Concerning Europe, only four out of the thirteen currently available neutron sources are likely to be operational in the year 2015, and only one new source (FRM-II) is currently under construction. In parallel with the expected decline in the number of neutron sources, instruments in high demand such as powder diffractometers, TOF - spectrometers, and SANS instruments will suffer a dramatic decrease to even less than one third of the present level.
For Europe, the study shows that even the realisation of all the new projects (ISIS upgrade, AUSTRON, European Spallation Source ESS, see the next paragraph) would do no more than simply compensate for the predicted decline in current capacity.

In the American region, on the contrary, realisation of the new projects would significantly strengthen the research capacity. In the Pacific region, the realisation of the planned sources would even exceed the present capabilities of the European and American regions. In conclusion, both the American and the Pacific regions have approved programmes that would eclipse the European lead in the next decade. Therefore realisation of possibly all the new projects for neutron sources in Europe is essential if Europe is to maintain pre-eminence in the field of neutron scattering.

World-wide Planned Projects

The Neutron Sources Working Group of the OECD Megascience Forum [Fejl! Henvisningskilde ikke fundet.] proposes the following global concept, which includes AUSTRON, to preserve research capacities:
· The construction of 3 - 4 large-scale neutron sources of the "next generation" in the three world regions Europe, USA and the Pacific, i.e. the ESS (Europe), SNS (USA), and JHF or/and NSRP (Japan) projects.
· The construction of new reactors and spallation sources with a regional catchment area, i.e. the AUSTRON (Central Europe), FRM - II (Munich, under construction), HIFAR - II (Australia) and IRF (Canada) projects.
· The upgrade of existing sources, i.e. the ISIS II (U.K.) and LANSCE (USA) projects.
· The upgrading of instruments, i.e. the of ILL (France) and NIST (USA) projects.

The American SNS project (1 MW) [Fejl! Henvisningskilde ikke fundet.] was granted considerable budget allocations for the year 1999 by Congress and Senate. The Japanese JHF project as part of a large-scale facility is in a financially secure planning position.

For the European Spallation Source ESS (5 MW) [Fejl! Henvisningskilde ikke fundet.] a Feasibility Study was submitted in March 1997 and the ESF is now asked to assess the project. According to its concept ESS would have a thirty times higher beam power than the currently most powerful source, ISIS. The concepts presented for the accelerator and the target are based on novel technology. For both it is planned to seek for solutions in the framework of several research projects