It’s official: Michigan State University (MSU) beat out several top nuclear science locations around the country for the new, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science-funded, $550 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB).
FRIB will provide intense beams of rare isotopes—short-lived atomic nuclei not normally found on Earth—that will enable researchers to address leading-edge questions in nuclear structure and nuclear astrophysics.
MSU’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) has been recognized as a world leader in rare isotope science and has produced research that has led to important breakthroughs in medicine, materials research, national security and physics.
"This is a great day for science,” says MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “We are grateful to the Department of Energy’s commitment to address this critical priority for the nation's physical sciences research infrastructure, and we are proud to have been selected as a partner. We are deeply dedicated to working with the Department of Energy’s Office of Science to develop an exceptional user facility serving the needs of national and international scientists."
Conceptual designs for the new facility will be created this year. Construction is expected to take up to 10 years. The facility will attract top researchers from around the world to conduct experiments in nuclear science, astrophysics and applications of isotopes to other fields.
The facility is expected to bring $1 billion in economic activity and 400 jobs to Michigan, according to an analysis by the Anderson Economic Group.
The NCSL facility will also get an upgrade, including a new, low-energy linear accelerator for nuclear astrophysics experiments and a 10,000-square-foot expansion of the experimental area. The upgrade should be complete by the summer of 2010.
For more information on the NCSL, click here.
Source: MSU
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
All Photographs © Dave Trumpie
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