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Summary
The National Institute of Standards and Technology [NIST] Center for Neutron Research
(NCNR) is a national user facility whose mission is to ensure the availability of neutron
measurement capabilities in order to meet the needs of U.S. researchers from industry, academia,
and government agencies. This mission is aligned with the mission of NIST, which is to
promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science,
standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve the quality of
life.
As requested by the Deputy Director of NIST, the scope of the fiscal year 2009
assessment of the NCNR conducted by the National Research Council’s Panel on Neutron
Research included the following criteria: (1) the technical merit of the current laboratory
programs relative to current state-of-the-art programs worldwide; (2) the adequacy of the
laboratory budget, facilities, equipment, and human resources, as they affect the quality of the
laboratory technical programs; and (3) the degree to which the laboratory programs in
measurement science and standards achieve their stated objectives and desired impact.
The NCNR has been an extremely reliable and comprehensive neutron scattering facility
and will continue to be a vital resource for meeting the broad spectrum of users’ scientific
objectives and needs for neutron scattering in the future. During the past year the NCNR has
continued to sustain a high level of creativity, productivity, and quality in science and research in
service to industry, academic, and government agency users. Half of U.S. neutron scatterers
used the facility during the past year, demonstrating the scientific role that the NCNR plays in
the country. The publication record of the NCNR facility attests to the high quality and quantity
of research in diverse areas of fundamental neutron science, condensed-matter physics, and
engineering. Resurgence in the collaborative partnership of the NCNR with the Polymers
Division of the NIST Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory is visible and likely to
enhance further the scientific output and impact in the soft-condensed-matter field. As indicated
by the NCNR User Group, users are highly satisfied by the quality of the instruments, the
support personnel, the access mechanism, and the facility as a whole.
An excellent example of the scientific prowess of the facility in the past year was the
work on novel Fe-based superconductors. This work was an exemplar of the strengths of the
facility, which include rapid access, permitting crucial measurements to be carried out; the right
combination of instruments; scientific leadership in the field; and a culture that seized the
opportunity to be at the forefront of this sensational research development and enabled a major
breakthrough in the field.
The NCNR Expansion Project is well underway and will be critical for continuing the
vitality and effectiveness of the facility. Through upgrades, reconfigurations, and the
construction of novel instruments, the Expansion Project will ensure a comprehensive,
competitive, and best-in-class suite of instruments for users in the future. To run the new suite of
instruments and sample environments, and to continue providing excellent support to the
increased number of users who will come to the facility to make use of these instruments, it will
be crucial to increase the number of personnel in order to exploit fully the capabilities of the
expanded facility. As the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL’s) Spallation Neutron
Source becomes fully operational and ORNL’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) goes into full
user-program mode, the NCNR will continue to be a vital resource for meeting the broad
spectrum of user needs for and scientific objectives related to neutron scattering. In many cases,
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the NCNR will be the facility of choice owing to its comprehensive capabilities, unique
instruments, and the scientific leadership of its personnel.
A report by the Office of Science and Technology Policy Interagency Working Group on
Neutron Science provides a summary of the capabilities of the major neutron scattering facilities
in the United States and indicates that there are significant differences in the instrument
distribution by class among the U.S. facilities.1 The report also suggests that the number of
neutron scattering instruments available in the United States in the future will be less than half
that available in Western Europe and less than that available in Japan. On a per capita basis, the
United States has half the neutron scattering capacity of either Western Europe or Japan—and
this shortfall is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. The NIST NCNR Web site
(http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/nsources.html) provides links to the Web sites for each of the world’s
major neutron scattering facilities, where detailed information is provided for each facility. The
NIST Web site also provides access to detailed descriptions of the instrumentation at the NCNR
(http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/instruments/) and of the NCNR Expansion Project and instrumentation
(http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/expansion/expansion.html). Descriptions of the NCNR’s organization,
facilities, and activities are provided in the NCNR 2008 annual report.2
A significant component of the excellence of the NCNR is the Center for High
Resolution Neutron Scattering (CHRNS) Program. Covering approximately 30 percent of the
current beam lines, the CHRNS is the heart of the NCNR User Program and sets the standard of
scientific productivity for other U.S. facilities. As described to the panel, each year the CHRNS
supports about 500 users, many of them graduate students, and yields about 100 publications,
about half of the high-impact publications of the NCNR. Developing the next generation of
neutron scattering scientists and engineers is a vital part of the CHRNS and the NCNR. To
continue to serve and grow the neutron scattering community and to maintain the excellent
scientific productivity carried out at the facility, it is critical that the spirit of open access, while
meeting all security requirements, be maintained.
In light of the stellar reliability of the facility and service with respect to neutron
scattering needs in the country, the potential for a prolonged and unplanned shutdown of the
facility in the event of a safety shim arm failure gives rise to major concern. No spares are
available at the facility, and the lead time for replacements is 8 months. Such a failure and an
associated long, unplanned shutdown would be extremely detrimental to the neutron scattering
capabilities in the U.S. contingency plans. Spares must be put in place as soon as possible to
obviate this potential problem.
The panel makes the following recommendations with respect to enhancing the
effectiveness of the NCNR in the pursuit of its goals.
1. Sustain NCNR operation and reactor maintenance efforts during the NCNR
Expansion Project by carrying out the following:
Mitigate the potential for a long, unplanned shutdown of the facility by planning
for contingencies with respect to safety shim arms;
1
Office of Science and Technology Policy Interagency Working Group on Neutron Science, Report on the
Status and Needs of Major Neutron Scattering Facilities and Instruments in the United States, June 2002. Available
at http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps23422/neutron.pdf. Accessed August 2009.
2
National Institute of Standards and Technology, Accomplishments and Opportunities: 2008 NIST Center
for Neutron Research, NIST Special Publication 1089. Available at
http://www.ncnr.nist.gov/AnnualReport/FY2008/AR2008.pdf. Accessed August 2009.
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Schedule all of the planned reactor upgrades, including the upgrade of the reactor
control instrumentation, and the installation of the second cold neutron source to
allow users to plan effectively;
Engage in dialogue with the NCNR Users Group concerning access to facilities
during the construction phase and upgrades; and
Continue actively attending to maintenance of the scientific openness of the
facility within the constraints of increasing security demands.
2. Enhance the soft-condensed-matter efforts of the facility in the following ways:
Continue the development of new technical capabilities that will allow the NCNR
to maintain leadership in key research areas that complement those of other
facilities, such as the Spallation Neutron Source and the High Flux Isotope
Reactor;
Continue the development of the soft-matter consortium between the NCNR, the
Polymers Division in the NIST Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory,
and the University of Delaware;
Increase network building with bioscientists at other institutions; strengthen
NCNR interactions with the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology,
involving NIST and the University of Maryland, pursuant to this goal; and more
actively engage the broad biological community;
Make it a clear objective of NCNR management to pursue aggressively the
ongoing recruitment effort for a scientific leader in experimental soft-condensed
matter; and
Broaden the theory effort in the fields of statistical physics and biophysics;
include in this effort a strong partnership with the Polymers Division.
3. Continue improvements to the NCNR User Program, including the following:
Renew the CHRNS partnership with the National Science Foundation, which is
the cornerstone of the User Program, outreach, and educational program of the
NCNR;
Commit to increasing research in biology and medicine at the NCNR through
coordinated engagement of the broad community;
Plan for substantially expanded outreach (for example, workshops and extended
scientific programs) when the planned new office building becomes available; and
Maintain the regular rotation schedule of new members onto the Beam Time
Allocation Committee.
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