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LOS ALAMOS NATIONAL LABORATORY

KEY FACILITIES

Los Alamos Neutron Science Center

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), located at TA-53, is an experimental, high-energy neutron facility. It was formerly the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), until October 1995 when the nuclear physics program was closed with the increased need for neutron research. The goal of LANSCE research is to aid the Stockpile Stewardship Program, counter the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and support materials sciences and technology. Its mission calls for the development and use of spallation neutron sources for research and applications. Categorized as a non-nuclear accelerator facility with a high-intensity, multiple-use, linear accelerator, it serves the scientific community in medium-energy nuclear and particle physics, applied research, condensed matter studies, medical isotopes, and nuclear technology development.

LANSCE comprises a high-power, 800-MeV proton linear accelerator (linac); a Proton Storage Ring (PSR); neutron production targets at the Lujan Center and the Weapons Neutron Research (WNR) facility; a proton radiography facility; a high-power materials irradiation area called the Los Alamos Spallation Effects Facility (LASEF); the Isotope Production Facility (IPF); and a variety of spectrometers.

LANSCE-NS (neutron and nuclear science) is used for basic and applied research in neutron nuclear science and weapons-related measurements. The facility consists of two target areas and their associated flight paths. Target 2, or the Blue Room, consists of a low-background room with seven flight paths. Two flight paths, FP14 (DANCE) and FP12, are located in the Lujan Center's Experimental Room 2. The Detector for Advanced Neutron Capture Experiments (DANCE), is used to study neutron capture reactions in support of the Stockpile Stewardship Program and for nuclear astrophysics. LANSCE-NS also houses the Germanium Array for Neutron Induced Excitations (GEANIE). GEANIE was the first large-scale, escape-suppressed, high-resolution gamma-ray spectrometer to be used at a white neutron source. The Fast Neutron-Induced Gamma-Ray Observer (FIGARO) is located at LANSCE-NS as well.

LANSCE has two spallation neutron sources: the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center (MLNSC), now the Lujan Center, and the Weapons Neutron Research (WNR) facility. WNR provides neutron and proton beams for basic and applied research in nuclear science and weapons-related measurements. The WNR facility has two target areas: a high-energy "white" neutron source (Target 4) and a proton reaction area (Target 2). Target 4 has 6 flight paths and is the most intense high-energy neutron source in the world. The Lujan Center employs a pulsed spallation neutron source equipped with time-of-flight spectrometers for neutron scattering studies of condensed-matter. The Lujan Center has sixteen flight paths that provide seventeen independent neutron beams. Seven are used for condensed-matter science and engineering, three are used for nuclear science research, and the other six are being instrumented. Instruments at the Lujan Center complex are located in two experimental rooms, ER1 and ER2. They include:

• The Neutron Powder Diffractometer (NPDF) is a high-resolution total-scattering powder diffractometer located at Flight Path 1. NPDF opened for the first time in September 2002.


• The Spectrometer for Materials Research at Temperature and Stress (SMARTS) is a third-generation neutron diffractometer for the study of engineering materials. It was funded by DOE and constructed at the Lujan Center. It came online in the summer of 2001.


• The High-Intensity Powder Diffractometer (HIPD) is designed to study the atomic and magnetic structure of materials that are available in polycrystalline and noncrystalline forms.


• The High-Pressure-Preferred Orientation (HIPPO) was the first third-generation neutron time-of-flight powder diffractometer constructed in the United States.


• The Filter Difference Spectrometer (FDS) is used for molecular vibrational spectroscopy by inelastic neutron scattering.


• The Single-Crystal Diffractometer (SCD) is used to determine the crystal and magnetic structures of a wide variety of materials.


• The Surface Profile Analysis Reflectometer (SPEAR), located on Flight Path 9 in the Lujan Neutron Scattering Center, is used in the study of organic and inorganic layers.


• Low-Q Diffractometer (LQD) is designed to study large-scale structures with dimensions.


• Asterix is a polarized neutron beam spectrometer for neutron reflectometry and diffraction experiments with polarization analysis. There is an unpolarized beam option available as well.


• IN500 is a neutron scattering instrument used to study soft and complex matter, including collective phenomena in polymers, biological matter, soft metals such as plutonium, liquids, and nanostructured matter.


• The Protein Crystallography Station (PCS) was built by the Bioscience Division at the Lujan Center to study the structure and dynamics of proteins, biological polymers, and membranes. Funded by the Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research, the PCS is the only resource of its kind in North America, and the first to be built at a spallation neutron source.


• The High-Resolution Chopper Spectrometer (Pharos) is used to study fundamental excitations in condensed-matter systems.

LANL first produced radioactive isotopes for medicine and research in the 1970s. Radioisotopes such as aluminum-26 and silicon-32 are unique to LANL. The mission of the accelerator facility changed in the early 1990s, eventually spurring the Isotope Production Facility (IPF) construction project at LANSCE, which focused on building a new target area. The new facility uses a 100 MeV proton beam extracted from the main LANSCE accelerator and directed to a new target irradiation facility. In the fall of 2003, construction of the new beam line and target area for the LANSCE 100 MeV IPF was completed. The facility has two levels. The lower level is underground and houses the beam line and target systems. The upper level includes an equipment room and a hot cell.

A new facility, the Materials Test Station (MTS), is planned for construction at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). Expected to open in 2012, the MTS will expose candidate fuels and components to conditions resembling that of a fast-neutron reactor.