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Record-breaker: SNS operates at full power—1.4 megawatts—for users for first time

Posted at 4:43 am July 8, 2014
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

ORNL SNS Full Power

The accelerator-based pulse neutron source at ORNL’s Spallation Neutron Source operated steadily for users at the maximum design power of 1.4 megawatts on June 26. (Photo credit: Genevieve Martin/ORNL)

 

The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory operated steadily at its full design power of 1.4 megawatts for researchers for the first time on June 26.

“We’re producing neutrons now at this intensity for user experiments,” spokesman Bill Cabage said in a telephone interview last week.

The $1.4 billion SNS is a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science user facility built on a ridge top at ORNL. It uses a linear proton accelerator and mercury target to provide the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. The proton beam hits the mercury target, knocking off neutrons from liquid mercury atoms. The neutrons, which are used to study materials from superconductors to biological systems, are then channeled down 16 instrument beam lines, where neutron spectrometers produce data revealing the structures and dynamics of molecules and atoms.

The SNS has been used for experiments since it started producing neutrons in April 2006, but at lower power. Researchers wanted to eventually get to full power, even if that had to be done gradually during the past eight years.

“They didn’t want to have a lot of disruption playing with it,” Cabage said. “They wanted to keep it reliable for users.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Slider, Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: 1.4 megawatts, Bill Cabage, Biological and Soft Matter Division, Center for Structural and Molecular Biology, full design power, full power, industrial development, jet-flow target, Kevin Jones, liquid mercury, mercury target, neutron beams, neutrons, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, ORNL, Paul Langan, proton accelerator, pulsed neutron beams, Research Accelerators Division, Scientific Research, SNS, Spallation Neutron Source, target, Target 9, U.S. Department of Energy

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