UK Upgrades Spallation Source

ISIS, the neutron spallation source located at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, UK, has been awarded £100 million (about $160 million) to add a second target station, the UK government announced on 8 April. The money is from the Office of Science and Technology, which plans UK investments in large research facilities.

ISIS currently delivers neutrons with wavelengths from fractions of an angstrom to several angstroms. The new target station will extend the usable range to about 15 Å. The longer wavelengths are in demand for research in soft condensed matter, advanced materials, and biomolecular science, says ISIS director Andrew Taylor.

“When we first built ISIS, we compromised by only having one target station,” adds Taylor. “Having two will fully optimize the beams we produce…. It will double the capacity and give an order of magnitude better capability.” Europe currently has by far the best neutron facilities, he adds, and with the ISIS upgrade, despite spallation sources under construction, “it will take time for the US and Japan to get up to speed to compete.”