US Neutron Facility Development in the Last Half-Century: A Cautionary Tale

Physics in Perspective

Volumn 17, Issue 2, 2015, Pages 135-155

  Rush, John J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

Author keywords

Department of Energy; Institut Laue Langevin; National Academy of Sciences; National Institute of Standards and Technology; national laboratories; neutron research; research reactors; spallation neutron sources

Indexed keywords

EID: 84937525350     PISSN: 14226944     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s00016-015-0158-8     Document Type: Article

References (17)

1. A recent paper on early neutron diffraction clearly reflects the exciting development phase in the 1940s: T. E. Mason, T. J. Gawne, S. E. Nagler, M. B. Nestora, and J. M. Carpenter, “The Early Development of Neutron Diffraction: Science in the Wings of the Manhattan Project,” Acta Crystallographica A69 (2013), 37–44.
2. Research Reactor Database, International Atomic Energy Agency, http://nucleus.iaea.org/RRDB/RR/ReactorSearch.aspx?rf=1.
3. Catherine Westfall, “Surviving to Tell the Tale: Argonne’s Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an Ecosystem Perspective,” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences40 (2010), 350–398.
4. National Research Council, “Neutron Research on Condensed Matter: A Study of Facilities and Scientific Opportunities in the United States” (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1977).
5. Arthur Robinson, “Will U.S. Skip Neutron Scattering Derby?,” Science211 (1981), 259–263, on 263.
6. National Research Council, “Major Facilities for Materials Research and Related Disciplines,” (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1984).
7. 4–5.
8. Westfall, “Surviving to Tell the Tale” (ref. 3).
9. Alvin Trivelpiece, “Some Observations on DOE’s Role in Megascience,” History of Physics Newsletter9 (Fall 2005), 14–15, http://www.aps.org/units/fhp/newsletters/upload/spring05.pdf.
10. “Neutron Sources for America’s Future: Report of the Basic Energy Sciences Panel on Neutron Sources,” DOE/ER-076P (January 1993), http://science.energy.gov/~/media/bes/besac/pdf/Neutron_source_america_future.pdf.
11. J. J. Rush and R. L. Cappelletti, “The NIST Center for Neutron Research: Over 40 Years Serving NIST/NBS and the Nation,” NIST Special Publication 1120 (August 2011), http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=908047.
12. Kai-Henrik Barth, “The Department of Energy’s Spallation Neutron Source Project: Description and Issues,” Congressional Research Service Report R.L. 30385 (December 1999).
13. For a detailed discussion of the HFBR situation, see Robert P. Crease, “Anxious History: The High Flux Beam Reactor and Brookhaven National Laboratory,” Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences32 (2001), 41–56.
14. Government Accountability Office, “Department of Energy: Information on the Tritium Leak and Contractor Dismissal at the Brookhaven National Laboratory,” Report GAO/RCED-98-26 (November 1997), http://www.gao.gov/products/RCED-98-26.
15. See, e.g., “Report on the Status and Needs of Major Neutron Scattering Facilities and Instruments in the United States,” Office of Science and Technology Policy (June 2002), 16–17, http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/ostp/Issues/NeutronIWGReport.pdf.
16. “European Spallation Source (ESS) Conceptual Design Report,” ESS-2012-001 (February 2012), http://esss.se/documents/CDR_final_120206.pdf. Many other details about the source and its scientific goals can be seen at http://europeanspallationsource.se/.
17. One of these major accelerator setbacks has been carefully reviewed in Robert P. Crease, “Quenched! The ISABELLE Saga, II,” Physics in Perspective7 (2005), 404–452.