Status of the SNS project

The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) is a second-generation pulsed neutron source under construction at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. SNS is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences and is dedicated to the study of the structure and dynamics of materials by neutron scattering. A partnership of six national laboratories (ANL, BNL, JLab, LANL, LBNL, and ORNL) is responsible for the design and construction of the various subsystems. The facility will begin operation in 2006 and will deliver a 1.0-GeV, 1.4-MW proton beam with a pulse length of approximately 700 nanoseconds to a liquid mercury target. The expertise of the different laboratories has been exploited to enhance the delivered beam power by almost an order of magnitude compared to existing neutron facilities. The achievable neutron-scattering performance will exceed present sources by more than a factor of 20 to 100. To achieve such a big step, the subsystems require substantial improvements compared with existing accelerators. The challenges, the status of the project, and potential upgrades are presented here.