An electron–ion collider (EIC) is likely to be the next major facility on the wish list of the US nuclear-physics community. Other big-ticket items on that list are finishing the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU), turning on the upgraded 12-GeV electron beam at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Newport News, Virginia, and building a ton-scale neutrinoless double-beta decay detector. And scientists dream of a host of smaller experiments.
“Nuclear physics has never been in as good a position scientifically as it is now,” says Berndt Mueller of Brookhaven National Laboratory. “The US has by far the best program.” Now the US nuclear-physics community is grappling with how to best fit its ideas into a limited budget to maintain that edge.
Last spring the Department of Energy (DOE) and NSF tasked the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) with setting priorities for the...
