ANSTO has signed a high- level agreement with the Japan Proton Accelerator Complex (J-PARC) today in Sydney which will extend a long, mutually beneficial and productive relationship.
ANSTO CEO Dr Adi Paterson signing the agreement with the Director of J-PARC Prof Naohito Saito. |
The main focus of this agreement will be to facilitate staff exchanges between two of the leading nuclear research organisations in the Asia Pacific region.
ANSTO’s landmark infrastructure includes one of the world’s best research reactors, OPAL and suite of state-of-the-art neutron scattering instruments, the Centre for Accelerator Science, the National Deuteration Facility and the Australian Synchrotron.
J-PARC, a joint project with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency and the High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation (KEK), comprises a series of world-class accelerators and experimental facilities that make use of high-intensity proton beams including the world's newest and most powerful spallation neutron source.
ANSTO researchers will have the opportunity to use a variety of secondary-particle beams produced at J-PARC through collisions between the proton beams and target materials.
“These alignments stimulate joint activities for the advancement of science and engineering and, subsequently, innovation in Australia and Japan,” said ANSTO CEO, Adi Paterson, who is signing the agreement at the opening of the 2nd Annual Asia Oceania Conference on Neutron Scattering (AOCNS) in Sydney on 19 July, 2015.
The Director of J-PARC, Professor Naohito Saito, travelled to Australia, for the signing of the agreement and to attend the conference and meeting of the Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association. The 1st AOCNS Conference was held in Tsukuba, Japan in 2011.
A significant number of distinguished nuclear scientists from ANSTO and J-PARC, who are making important contributions using nuclear techniques and infrastructure to the materials, energy, health and environmental sectors, will be reporting on their work at the conference.
ANSTO has long standing collaborative arrangements with counterpart Japanese institutions in the areas of materials research, neutron scattering science, and synchrotron science.
Collaborations have taken on particular importance since the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami, which forced the temporary suspension of Japan’s research reactor operations.
ANSTO has negotiated MOUs with five Japanese research organisations in the past 12 months. MOUs for technical cooperation, knowledge sharing and access to facilities – particularly the neutron science facilities at the OPAL reactor - have been signed with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, theUniversity of Tokyo, the National Institute for Materials Science and the University of Tsukuba.
The AOCNS meeting brings together physicists, chemists, biologists, earth scientists and engineers together with specialist facilities-based neutron scattering experts from the Asia-Oceania region and beyond.
ANSTO is very well represented with around 60 attendees from the Bragg Institute. Three staff are giving invited talks at the meeting: a plenary on "Neutrons for Biology: Protein Interactions, Dynamics and Hydration", by Katy Wood, a keynote on "Understanding Functional Framework Materials using Neutron Scattering and Computational Methods" by Vanessa Peterson and the opening talk in the Neutron Science Facility Session by Institute Head,Rob Robinson.
Published: 20/07/2015