Technical Concepts for a Long-Wave Target Station for the Spallation Neutron Source

摘要

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), a major new user facility for materials research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The SNS will operate at a proton beam power of 1.4 MW delivered in short pulses at 60 Hz; this power level is an order of magnitude higher than that of the current most intense pulsed spallation neutron facility in the world, ISIS at the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory in the United Kingdom: 160 kW at 50 Hz. When completed in 2006, the SNS will supply the research community with neutron beams of unprecedented intensity and a powerful, diverse instrument suite with exceptional capabilities. Together, these will enable a new generation of experimental studies of interest to chemists, condensed matter physicists, biologists, materials scientists, and engineers, in an ever-increasing range of applications. The Long-Wavelength Target Station (LWTS) complements the High-Power Target Station (HPTS) facility, which is already under construction, and will leverage the significant investment in the remainder of the complex, providing important new scientific opportunities. The fully equipped SNS will offer capabilities for neutron scattering studies of the structure and dynamics of materials with sensitivity, resolution, dynamic range, and speed that are unparalleled in the world.