Successful Relocation

Jülich Neutron Spectrometer SV30 Set Up in China

IFF-News July 26, 2010

In June, physicists and engineers of the Institute of Scattering Methods at IFF set up a neutron triple-axis spectrometer to conduct research on the dynamics and magnetism of condensed matter at the new high-flux reactor CARR. The reactor belongs to the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) in Fangshan, 50 km southwest of Beijing. The spectrometer was sold to the Chinese institution together with two more instruments (single-crystal diffractometers) from Jülich when the research reactor "DIDO" was decommissioned in May 2006. Within the framework of a cooperation agreement between Forschungszentrum Jülich and CIAE, the two institutions agreed to set up the instruments at the new reactor in Fangshan, where they will later be used by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) as well.

"It was a real challenge to set up the triple-axis spectrometer at its new location at the CARR high-flux reactor," says physicist Dr. Harald Conrad, who coordinated the relocation of the SV 30. After all, the heaviest component of the spectrometer weighs more than eight tonnes and the complete primary shield some 70 tonnes. With the support of the IFF engineers, the instrument could nevertheless be set up within the schedule. "Test operations with neutrons will be started when the reactor has gone into operation, possibly in late 2010," says Conrad. The two diffractometers will be set up next.

"China has a long-standing history of research with neutrons," says Conrad. "The country has been operating a 2-MW heavy-water research reactor since 1958. However, due to its low flux density, research on an international level was only possible to a limited extent. The new 60-MW reactor with an expected unperturbed flux density of 8 1014 (800 trillion) neutrons per square centimetre per second will now enable the CIAE to enter top-level neutron research."

JCNS: http://www.jcns.info