Tour the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) facilities
To tour the SNS and/or HFIR you must sign up via the Registration tab.
Spallation Neutron Source
SNS is a one-of-a-kind research facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world for scientific research and industrial development. SNS produces neutrons with an accelerator-based system that delivers short (microsecond) proton pulses to a target/moderator system, where neutrons are produced by a process called spallation. With its more intense, brighter source of neutrons and world-class instrumentation, SNS provides the neutron scattering community with unprecedented research opportunities. SNS allows for measurements of greater sensitivity, higher speed, higher resolution, and in more complex sample environments than have been possible at other neutron facilities. Eighteen state-of-the-art experiment stations provide a variety of capabilities for researchers across a broad range of disciplines, such as physics, chemistry, materials science, and biology.
High Flux Isotope Reactor
Operating at 85 MW, HFIR is the highest flux reactor-based source of neutrons for research in the United States, and it provides one of the highest steady-state neutron fluxes of any research reactor in the world. The thermal and cold neutrons produced by HFIR are used to study physics, chemistry, materials science, engineering, and biology. The neutron scattering research facilities at HFIR contain 12 world-class instruments used for fundamental and applied research on the structure and dynamics of matter.
SNS and HFIR are available to researchers from all over the world with varying degrees of experience. Submitted research proposals are reviewed by independent scientists from within the neutron scattering community, and the most promising ones are chosen.
