Construction and Operation of the Spallation Neutron Source

The United States needs a high-flux, short- pulsed neutron source to provide its scientific and industrial research communities with a much more intense source of pulsed neutrons for neutron scattering research than is currently available. This source would assure the availability of a state-of-the-art neutron research facility in the United States in the decades ahead. This facility would be used to conduct research in areas such as materials science, condensed matter physics, the molecular structure of biological materials, properties of polymers and complex fluids, and magnetism. In addition to creating new scientific and engineering opportunities, this next generation neutron source would help to replace the capacity that will be lost by the eventual shutdown of existing sources in the first half of the next century as they reach the end of their useful operating lives.