Upgrading scientific capabilities at the high-flux isotope reactor

Abstract

Following the termination of the Advanced Neutron Source (ANS) Project, an upgrading program for the Department of Energy's High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) was devised by a team of researchers and reactor operators, which has been proposed to the department. HFIR is a multipurpose research reactor, commissioned in 1965, with missions in four nationally important areas: isotope production, especially transuranic isotopes; neutron scattering; neutron activation analysis; and irradiation testing of materials. For neutron scattering, there are two major enhancements and several smaller ones. The first is the installation of a small, hydrogen cold neutron source in one of the four existing beam tubes: because of the high reactor power, and the use of new design concepts developed for ANS, the cold source will be as bright as, or brighter than, the Institut Laue-Langevin liquid deuterium vertical cold source, although space limitations mean that there will be far fewer cold beams and instruments at HFIR. This project is underway, and the cold source is expected to come on line following an extended shutdown in 1999 to replace the reactor's beryllium reflector. The second major change proposed would put five thermal neutron guides at an existing beam port and construct a new guide hall to accommodate instruments on these very intense beams.