Linear accelerator for heavy isotopes sees progress in approval process

Science : The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is a proposed linear accelerator that would generate heavy isotopes normally formed in stellar explosions. It will be located at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing. On 1 August, the Department of Energy approved FRIB’s proposed cost and schedule for construction. The $730 million facility will receive $94.5 million of its funding from MSU and is planned to be completed in 2022. Construction cannot start until the much-delayed 2014 federal budget passes Congress. Nevertheless, with the current DOE approval, the facility can begin obtaining the materials necessary for building the high-tech parts of the accelerator. According to a recent review of DOE’s funding, however, the agency is facing budgetary constraints and may not be able to support both FRIB and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in Brookhaven, New York. If that is the case, the panel that conducted the review recommended funding FRIB over RHIC.