The US Department of Energy (DOE) has approved the release of a report on the neutron research capabilities being planned for the Second Target Station (STS) to be built at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Available online in a full and abridged version, the document is titled First Experiments: New Science Opportunities at the Spallation Neutron Source Second Target Station.
The report details how the STS will permit transformative new science in many fields of research. One section presents examples of opportunities for researchers to conduct unprecedented, STS-enabled experiments in five critical areas of science: polymers and soft materials, quantum matter, materials synthesis and energy materials, structural materials, and biology and life sciences. Key aspects of the STS design, including preliminary descriptions of possible research instruments, are also reported.
The capabilities offered by the STS will complement those of two existing DOE neutron scattering user facilities at ORNL: the First Target Station (FTS) of the SNS and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR), as well as those of the National Institute for Science and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR).
The STS has a pivotal role to play in extending the research of neutron scattering to new transformative opportunities for discovery science, including in particular applications that require time-resolved examination of highly complex materials over greatly increased length, energy, and time scales. It will enable experiments that will not be possible at any other facility in the world.
