NcNeutron er et nasjonalt senter for nøytron-basert forskning og teknologi. Dette være viktig for at norske forskere skal få tilgang til nøytron-baserte metoder og for framtid bruk av European Spallation Source (ESS) i Lund, Sverige. JEEP II reaktoren ved IFE på Kjeller ble besluttet stengt permanent i april 2019, og for gjennomføring av NcNeutron og for norsk tilgang til nøytron-baserte metoder startet en prosess for å få til en avtale med et annet europeisk nøytronanlegg. Det ble besluttet å jobbe med avtale med Paul Scherrer instituttet (PSI) i Sveits for norsk tilgang til nøytronanlegget SINQ. Dette initiativet ble godkjent av Forskningsrådet. Avtalen mellom PSI og IFE gjelder fra 1. mai 2021 og varighet på 6 år gir norske nøytronbrukere årlig tilgang til ca 50 dager stråletid ved bruk av instrumenteringen ved SINQ. Det er årlig to utlysninger om stråletid ved anlegget i Sveits, og i de to første utlysningene for NcNeutron i 2021 har det vært mange søknader, og flere enn det som det vil bli mulig å gjennomføre.
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.