The Spallation Neutron Source in Oak Ridge: A powerful tool for materials research

When completed in 2006, the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will use an accelerator to produce the most intense beams of pulsed neutrons in the world. This unique facility is being built by a collaboration of six US Department of Energy laboratories and will serve a diverse community of users drawn from academia, industry, and government labs. The project continues on schedule and within budget, with commissioning and installation of all systems going well. Installation of 14 state-of-the-art instruments is under way, and design work is being completed for several others. These new instruments will enable inelastic and elastic-scattering measurements across a broad range of science such as condensed-matter physics, chemistry, engineering materials, biology, and beyond. Neutron Science at SNS will be complemented by research opportunities at several other facilities tinder way at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.