Yesterday the Australian Government announced, in its annual Budget Statement to Parliament, $37M of new capital funding for additional neutron beam instruments at the OPAL reactor.
Specifically, these funds are for a new split guide with 2 extra end positions in the CG2 position (between QUOKKA and PLATYPUS), 3 new instruments and extra sample-environment apparatus.
The 3 new instruments will be a second small-angle neutron scattering instrument, to complement QUOKKA and KOOKABURRA, a high-resolution cold-neutron spectroscopy instrument and a thermal-beam neutron radiography station.
This announcement builds on many years of strategic planning, going back to the Blue-Mountains Workshop held in December 2005, review by the Beam Instruments Advisory Group and Bragg Institute Advisory Committee and submissions as part of the NCRIS process in 2006.
Particular thanks are due to Frank Klose for championing the specific funding proposal during the last 6 months.
The next steps are to hire the necessary staff for the project, which is similar in scope to our successful Neutron Beam Instruments Project (2000-2006), hold a workshop (in August or September 2009) with our user community, and reconvene a new Beam Instruments Advisory Group.
Published: 13/05/2009