“The government is pushing us to speed up and do this as fast as possible, and local leadership is very supportive. That is one reason I like doing the project,” says Jie Wei, manager for the R&D and construction phases of the China Spallation Neutron Source.
R&D has begun, says Wei, who came to the CSNS from a long career as an accelerator physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory, where he still spends half his time. The CSNS “is politically in principle already approved,” but a feasibility study, environmental assessment, and other paperwork are still pending. Construction will start next year, he says, and the CSNS is slated to go on line in 2013.
The neutron source will start off with an average power of 120 kW—comparable to today’s world leader, ISIS in the UK—and is being designed for a future upgrade to 500 kW. Thom Mason, director of the Spallation...
