Norwegian Center for Neutron Research - NcNeutron

The Norwegian Center for Neutron Research, NcNeutron, is a neutron science and technology exchange center in Norway. It is important for use of neutron-based methods for Norwegian researchers and for future Norwegian use of the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden when the facility will be in operation from 2026-2027. The JEEP II reactor at IFE was permanently shutdown in April 2019, and then in order to complete NcNeutron and to give Norwegian researchers access to neutron-based methods, it was decided to work to obtain an agreement with an European neutron source. After approval by the Research Council of Norway, was established an agreement with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) in Switzerland for a Norwegian access to their neutron source SINQ. The agreement between PSI and IFE applies from 1. May 2021 and with a duration of 6 years. It gives Norwegian neutron-users annual access to ca 50 days of beamtime with all instrumentation at SINQ. There are two rounds of beamtime allocations every year for Norwegian experiments at SINQ via NcNeutron. Until the end of 2023, 44 experiments from 8 Norwegian universities and Research institutes have been carried out. Norwegian users have been allocated on average 53 days of beamtime per year, and the experiments have been carried out on 10 of the SINQ instruments. This covers the main methods for use of neutrons: diffraction, imaging, spectroscopy, small angle scattering and residual stress experiments. Per the end of 2023: it has been published 7 scientific articles, 20 articles in preparation (typically it tales 2 - 2 1/2 year from an experiment to a published paper), 25 presentations at conferences and 15 PhD-students will use NcNeutron data in their thesis,.

The Norwegian Center for Neutron Research, NcNeutron, was planned to be a neutron science and technology exchange center associated with the JEEP II research reactor at IFE, but with the permanent shutdown of JEEP II in Spring 2018, the NcNeutron investments and activities will via an agreement with PSI in Switzerland be transferred to NcNeutron@PSI. Its vision is to become an internationally renowned center for neutron-based research applied to materials science and technology. NcNeutron will serve as a knowledge-base for Norwegian researchers using neutrons, and it will include access to the state-of-the-art instrumentation at PSI. The construction of the European Spallation Source (ESS) has started in Lund, Sweden, and the NcNeutron infrastructure will: (i) support Norway's participation in the ESS by education in the use of neutrons and by providing a network node for scientific interaction and collaboration; and (ii) play a key role as a regional neutron scattering and imaging center also when the ESS is in operation. NcNeutron will be strongly complementary to the recently established national research infrastructures RECX and NORTEM, and thus give Norwegian researchers in materials science and nanotechnology a significant advantage. The NcNeutron@PSI includes: - Contribute to upgrade 2 of the instruments at SINQ, PSI: an neutron imaging instrument and a residual stress instrument - Transfer several components that was purchased at IFE before the JEEP II shutdown to PSI - A post doc staying at PSI and funded by IFE The investments at PSI will give access to 35% of one instrument, that can be used on the full instrument suit at SINQ, in practice approximately 50 days of beamtime over a period of 6 years. The national partners are IFE, UiO, UiS, SINTEF and with a strong support from NTNU. Relevant Norwegian industry and main European neutron facilities, ESS, ILL and PSI, express strong support to the research infrastructure.