Facts & Figures

ORNL Neutron Sciences

Our vision: to provide unprecedented capabilities for understanding the structure and properties of materials across the spectrum of biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering and to stay at the leading edge of neutron science by developing new instruments, tools, and services.

Our main goal: excellence in science

SNS Guinness World Record

ORNL Director Thom Mason with the Guinness World Record award for SNS.

  • Operations: Two user facilities—the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)
  • Location: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
  • Sponsor: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Sciences
  • Research & support staff: Approximately 600

From left to right: DOE-Oak Ridge Office Manager Gerald Boyd, Congressman Zach Wamp, ORNL Director Thom Mason, and Senator Lamar Alexander during the August 2007 America COMPETES Act
and SNS record announcement media event at SNS.

SNS

  • Accelerator-based neutron source
  • Guinness World Record holder for the most powerful pulsed spallation neutron source
  • Power: eventual operation of 1.4 megawatts of beam power at 60 hertz
  • Instrument capacity: 25


HFIR

  • Reactor-based neutron source
  • Highest flux source of neutrons for condensed matter research in the United States
  • Power: 85 megawatts; peak thermal flux of 2.6 x 1015 neutrons per square centimeter per second
  • Threefold mission: (1) neutron scattering, (2) isotope production, and (3) neutron irradiation and activation analysis
  • Western world's only source of californium-252 and some other transuranic elements
  • Instrument capacity: 11
HFIR Control Room

HFIR control room.

Back to Top