National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

Scientific Opportunities with a RARE-ISOTOPE FACILITY in the United States

Rare-Isotope Science Assessment Committee

Board on Physics and Astronomy

Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

500 Fifth Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by Contract No. DE-FG02-05ER-41401 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of Energy and Grant No. PHY-0541656 between the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Foundation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-10408-1

International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-10408-4

Cover: A chart of the nuclides overlays a view from the cameras of the Hubble Space Telescope. The transparent region of the nuclide chart (which shows isotopes as a function of the number of neutrons and protons in the nucleus) represents the unknown territory of the isotope landscape. Many rare isotopes play an important role in astrophysics, especially stellar nucleosynthesis. Courtesy of K. Rykaczewski and A. Rykaczewski.

Additional copies of this report are available from the

National Academies Press,

500 Fifth Street, N.W., Lockbox 285, Washington, DC 20055; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington metropolitan area); Internet, http://www.nap.edu; and the Board on Physics and Astronomy, National Research Council, 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001; Internet, http://www.national-academies.org/bpa.

Copyright 2007 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine


The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.


The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Wm. A. Wulf is president of the National Academy of Engineering.


The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.


The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Wm. A. Wulf are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.


www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

This page intentionally left blank.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

RARE-ISOTOPE SCIENCE ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE

JOHN F. AHEARNE,

Sigma Xi and Duke University,

Co-Chair

STUART J. FREEDMAN,

University of California at Berkeley,

Co-Chair

RICARDO ALARCON,

Arizona State University

PETER BRAUN-MUNZINGER,

Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI)

ADAM S. BURROWS,

University of Arizona

RICHARD F. CASTEN,

Yale University

YANGLAI CHO,1

Argonne National Laboratory (retired)

GERALD T. GARVEY,

Los Alamos National Laboratory

WICK C. HAXTON,

University of Washington

ROBERT L. JAFFE,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

NOEMIE B. KOLLER,

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

STEPHEN B. LIBBY,

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

SHOJI NAGAMIYA,

Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex

WITOLD NAZAREWICZ,

University of Tennessee, Knoxville

MICHAEL V. ROMALIS,

Princeton University

PAUL SCHMOR, TRIUMF

MICHAEL C.F. WIESCHER,

University of Notre Dame

STANFORD E. WOOSLEY,

University of California at Santa Cruz

Staff

DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director, Board on Physics and Astronomy

TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer

DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate

PAMELA A. LEWIS, Program Associate

PHILLIP D. LONG, Senior Program Assistant (January 2006–September 2006)

VAN AN, Financial Associate

1

Unable to participate because of illness.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

BOARD ON PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

ANNEILA L. SARGENT,

California Institute of Technology,

Chair

MARC A. KASTNER,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

Vice-Chair

JOANNA AIZENBERG,

Lucent Technologies

JONATHAN A. BAGGER,

Johns Hopkins University

JAMES E. BRAU,

University of Oregon

RONALD C. DAVIDSON,

Princeton University

RAYMOND J. FONCK,

University of Wisconsin at Madison

ANDREA M. GHEZ,

University of California at Los Angeles

PETER F. GREEN,

University of Michigan

WICK C. HAXTON,

University of Washington

FRANCES HELLMAN,

University of California at Berkeley

JOSEPH HEZIR,

EOP Group, Inc.

ERICH P. IPPEN,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

ALLAN H. MacDONALD,

University of Texas at Austin

CHRISTOPHER F. McKEE,

University of California at Berkeley

HOMER A. NEAL,

University of Michigan

JOSE N. ONUCHIC,

University of California at San Diego

WILLIAM D. PHILLIPS,

National Institute of Standards and Technology

THOMAS N. THEIS,

IBM T.J.Watson Research Center

C. MEGAN URRY,

Yale University

Staff

DONALD C. SHAPERO, Director

TIMOTHY I. MEYER, Senior Program Officer

ROBERT L. RIEMER, Senior Program Officer

NATALIA J. MELCER, Program Officer

BRIAN D. DEWHURST, Senior Program Associate

DAVID B. LANG, Research Associate

PAMELA A. LEWIS, Program Associate

VAN AN, Financial Associate

MATTHEW T. BOWEN,

Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy

Graduate Fellow

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

Preface

The Rare-Isotope Science Assessment Committee (RISAC) was charged by the National Research Council’s Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA), the Department of Energy (DOE), and the National Science Foundation to define the science agenda for a next-generation U.S. Facility for Rare-Isotope Beams (FRIB); the full charge is presented in Appendix A. By design RISAC consists of scientists who work mostly outside the rare-isotope science community (see Appendix F for biographical sketches of the committee members). After RISAC had begun its meetings, the DOE announced that the budget of what was then understood as the Rare Isotope Accelerator (RIA) should be reduced by half and that there would be no project-engineering definition funding available until 2011.

These developments in facility definition and projected schedule presented the committee with two chief challenges. First, an effort that had started as an analysis of the most compelling intellectual territory addressed by a well-defined facility was transformed into the inverse task. Thus, the committee focused first on the scientific questions of highest importance and then speculated about the technical capabilities that a next-generation facility (FRIB) would need to make progress. Second, with a shift in the anticipated construction start from 2008 to 2011 at the earliest, the committee was forced to guess at not only the scientific developments more than a decade in the future but also the evolving scientific activities of other facilities and nations around the world.

Nevertheless, in response to the DOE announcement and the charge for this

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

study, the committee has focused on articulating the science that could be accomplished at a reduced-scope rare-isotope facility, referred to as a FRIB or a U.S. FRIB in this report. The committee offers conclusions on the potential impact of such a facility in the areas of nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, and fundamental interactions, as well as various applications of a FRIB, including national security. The charge called for an evaluation of the impact of a FRIB on the overall context of nuclear physics both nationally and internationally.

Representatives from major regions of the world (Europe/Germany, Japan, and Canada) that have planned and operated existing rare-isotope beam facilities provided the basis for the committee’s advice about the international context of a FRIB. To avoid the appearance of bias, the committee membership did not include representatives actively participating in the formulation of proposals to build a U.S. FRIB. However, the committee did hear testimony from members of those groups (in addition to many others; the meeting agendas are presented in Appendix B). The committee heard presentations from appropriate experts about applications of a FRIB to areas of medical research, stockpile stewardship, and national security. RISAC was not asked to recommend a specific facility or to compare a FRIB with other U.S. initiatives in nuclear science. Furthermore, RISAC was not asked to provide overall guidance on how the United States might most effectively leverage its investments in nuclear science as part of a global program.

The committee thanks the speakers who made formal presentations at each of the meetings; their presentations and the ensuing discussions were extremely informative and had a significant impact on the committee’s deliberations. And in general, the committee acknowledges the extra work required to prepare remarks addressing the broad spectrum of expertise on the committee. The committee also thanks BPA staff members Donald Shapero, Timothy Meyer, and Phillip Long for their guidance and assistance throughout this process.

On a more personal note, we would also like to extend special thanks and appreciation to RISAC member Gerry Garvey for his help in skillfully weaving together the views of the committee into a consistent whole and in responding to the reviews, which were particularly thoughtful and helpful in refining the report.

John F. Ahearne, Co-Chair

Stuart J. Freedman, Co-Chair

Rare-Isotope Science Assessment Committee

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

Acknowledgment of Reviewers

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:


Gordon A. Baym, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

James E. Brau, University of Oregon,

Hans Geissel, Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI),

Ian G. Halliday, Scottish Universities Physics Alliance and European Science Foundation,

Kees de Jager, Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory,

Kirby W. Kemper, Florida State University,

Kevin S. McFarland, University of Rochester,

Peter Mészáros, Pennsylvania State University,

Cherry A. Murray, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory,

Jean-Michel Poutissou, TRIUMF,

R.G. Hamish Robertson, University of Washington, and

Lee Schroeder, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×

Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations, nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Pierre C. Hohenberg, New York University. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R1
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R2
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R3
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R4
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R5
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R6
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R7
Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R8
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R9
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R10
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R11
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2007. Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11796.
×
Page R12
Next: Executive Summary »
Scientific Opportunities with a Rare-Isotope Facility in the United States Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $50.00 Buy Ebook | $40.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

Over ten years ago, U.S. nuclear scientists proposed construction of a new rare isotope accelerator in the United States, which would enable experiments to elucidate the important questions in nuclear physics. To help assess this proposal, DOE and NSF asked the NRC to define the science agenda for a next-generation U.S. Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). As the study began, DOE announced a substantial reduction in the scope of this facility and put off its initial operation date by several years. The study focused on an evaluation of the science that could be accomplished on a facility reduced in scope. This report provides a discussion of the key science drivers for a FRIB, an assessment of existing domestic and international rare isotope beams, an assessment of the current U.S. position about the FRIB, and a set of findings and conclusions about the scientific and policy context for such a facility.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    Switch between the Original Pages, where you can read the report as it appeared in print, and Text Pages for the web version, where you can highlight and search the text.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  9. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!