Breaking News
January 2012:
FRIB Funding in the News
Statements by DOE Secretary Chu on January 11, 2012
are being widely reported as indicating uncertainties in the funding for FRIB.
While the budget for the next fiscal year has not yet been released,
we remain optimistic that the tremendous advances promised by FRIB in
basic and applied science -- as pointed out in the 2007 National
Academies Report and the 2007 NSAC Long Range Plan -- will be realized.
In the current Fiscal Year, FRIB will receive 22 million dollars in
funding from the US Department of Energy, and construction is slated
to begin in May 2012. FRIB has had a number of significant milestones,
including support by a March 2011 Lehman Review to advance civil
construction ahead by one year relative to CD-1 schedule, and a
September 2011 Lehman Review that found FRIB to be on track and
ready for a CD-2/3A review in April 2012. Our User Organization,
now almost 1200 members strong, has over 20 Working Groups who are
writing proposals, building equipment, and preparing for exciting
science at FRIB. Getting this world-leading facility built,
especially in this era of challenging budgets, will require
continuous effort by our members working together with the
FRIB Facility and the nuclear physics community. Now, more
than ever, it is crucial to keep focused on our goal of making
FRIB a reality.
December 2011:
Voting complete
The vote by the membership of the FRIB Users Organization for three new
members of the Executive Committee is complete: Walter Loveland [Oregon State
Univ.] and Lee Sobotka [Washington Univ. St. Louis] were elected as general
members of the Executive Committee, and Ian Thompson [LLNL] was elected as
the Theory Representative. Please welcome them aboard ! Let's also thank
Rick Casten [Yale], Jeff Blackmon [LSU], and Augusto Macchiavelli [LBNL]
for their three excellent years of service to the FRIB Users Organization Executive
Committee.
November 2011:
Mergers Complete with NSCL User Group & FRIB Theory Users Group
The vote by the membership of the FRIB Users Organization on the changes in
our Charter to Merge the NSCL User Group with the FRIB
Users Organization, and to Merge the FRIB Theory User
Group with the FRIB Users Organization, is now complete.
The Charter changes for the Mergers have overwhelmingly passed,
with 217 in favor and 5 opposed.
Our new Charter now specifies that
* a standing (that is, permanent) Operations Subcommittee
of the Executive Committee is established; and that
* future elections of the Executive Committee will be arranged
such that this Committee has at least one Theorist and three
members of the Operations Subcommittee.
You can read the newly modified charter by
clicking here.
As a result of this election, the FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee
now has three additional members who comprise the Operations Subcommittee:
Michael Famiano, Western Michigan University [term expires Dec. 31, 2012]
Paul Fallon, LBNL [Dec. 31, 2013]
Krzysztof Rykaczewski, ORNL [Dec. 31, 2014]
The FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee also has one additional
member who is filling the Theorist slot:
Ian Thompson, LLNL [Dec. 31, 2011]
Please welcome our new members of the Executive Committee !
You can see the entire list of Executive Committee members at
clicking here.
We will soon announce a new election for members of the Executive Committee that
are rotating off at the end of this calendar year.
May 2011:
Planning for the Joint ATLAS-HRIBF-NSCL-FRIB Users Meeting on August 18 - 20, 2011
Planning is ongoing for the first annual Joint ATLAS-HRIBF-NSCL-FRIB Users Meeting, to be held in
East Lansing, MI from 18-20 August, 2011. A mailing will be sent with more information;
please see our Gatherings page
for more information on the meeting and visit the official meeting page at
http://meetings.nscl.msu.edu/superuser2011/.
April 2011:
Beam accelerated through first ReA3 cryomodule at MSU/NSCL
From: Daniela Leitner, ReA3 Group Leader, MSU/NSCL
Beam commissioning of the ReA3 reaccelerator continued last week through the
first cryomodule. On Friday, April 14, an ion beam was accelerated using the
first cryomodule of the ReA3 reaccelerator. This is the first ion beam
acceleration through an SRF cavity at MSU.
ReA3 is designed to accelerate rare isotope beams produced by NSCL's
Coupled Cyclotron Facility and will be part of FRIB. Once completed,
ReA3 will serve the nuclear science community by delivering a wide variety of
exotic isotopes for nuclear science experiments at variable energies with high
beam quality.
A He+ beam from the pilot ion source was accelerated by the room temperature Radio
Frequency Quadrupole (RFQ) to 600 keV/u and then further accelerated through
the first SRF cavity in the rebuncher to about 640 keV/u. To determine the
absolute energy gain and energy spread of the beam, a time of flight diagnostic
will be necessary and is under development.
For these beam tests the rebuncher SRF cavity designed for an optimal beta
of 0.041 was operated in acceleration mode. The kinetic energy of the accelerated
beam particles after the cryomodule was measured with a foil silicon detector.
Figure 1 shows the energy spectrum from the accelerated beam using only
the RFQ (SRF cavity is grounded, red trace) together with the spectrum obtained
when the SRF cavity is energized to a gradient of about 8 MV/m (blue trace).
Also shown in the spectrum is the peak from the calibration alpha source, which
is permanently mounted off axis in the diagnostic box. The calibration source
provides alpha particles at a total energy of 5.5 MeV and is used to calibrate
the detector.
In addition, the beam energy was measured relative to the cavity phase with
respect to the beam provided by the RFQ. As expected, the energy gain is proportional
to a cosine-like function with the maximum energy gain at 0 phase (
Figure 2, 0 phase corresponds to 260° in the graph). By measuring the energy gain
as a function of the cavity phase, the phasing between the RFQ and the SRF LINAC can be
calibrated.
The commissioning will continue through the next cryomodule using the same procedure to
determine the relative phase for each cavity.
Please see the original posting of this article at
this link.
News Archive
March 2011:
FRIB Congressional Visit
Over 20 members of our User Organization went to
Washington on March 1 for a visit to the Staff of
their Senators and Representatives. There were over 50
visits to different Congressmen, and overall our
members had a very good reception as they advocated
for strong funding for the DOE Office of Science in general, and
FRIB in particular. FRIB is slated to receive 10 M$ in Fiscal Year 2011 [FY11]
and 30 M$ in FY12, and the message delivered was the importance
of FRIB science and of Low Energy Nuclear Science, and the importance
to keep on this funding path. The MSU Office in Washington set up the
schedules for the visits, and gave detailed instructions and advice on
effectively getting our message across during the sessions with the
Congressional Staffers. Our members left behind a copy of the
letter of
support for nuclear science funding that over 300 of
our US-based members have signed;
click here
to see the PDF version we left behind.
We also left behind
two handouts with the Congressional Staffers,
an FRIB Fact Sheet and
a list of 10 reasons to love Nuclear Science. For our US members,
we strongly encourage continued discussions with your Congressional representatives
with follow-up emails to build up a relationship with them and
keep FRIB on their mind. When doing this, make sure that you do
not use government resources [computers, funds, time] for these
education and advocacy activities.
February 2011:
FRIB SAC Meeting
The FRIB Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) met from
Feb. 18 - 19 in East Lansing, Michigan. They reviewed the
written status reports that were turned in by the FRIB Working groups --
and made recommendations to the FRIB Facility on priorities for
near-term funding. Comments from the SAC on the Working Group status
reports will be sent individually to the Point of Contacts of
the Working Groups. The continued development of FRIB detector
systems -- through vigorous efforts of the Working Groups --
is crucial to maximize the early scientific impact of FRIB.
January 2011:
FRIB Funding Letter
Most of our large membership will not be able to attend our Washington
visit [see below] in person. We have therefore written a
letter of
support for nuclear science funding that all of our members
living in the U.S. can electronically sign. This joint letter will be
delivered to the appropriate offices during our visit and
will remain posted online. Please
visit this page
to read the letter, electronically sign it, and see who else has signed.
Thank you for your help ! The more signatures we get, the stronger
our case will be for funding for FRIB and for nuclear science.
January 2011:
FRIB Congressional Visit
With the new Congress in Washington and their focus on
cutting the Federal budget, it is an important time for us
to make the case to them for funding of basic research and,
in particular, for funding of activities of the DOE Office
of Science and National Science Foundation. One of the most
effective ways to express this case is to visit Congress in
person. Hence we are planning to arrange a one-day fly-in for
FRIB User Organization members to come to Washington and
visit with members of their congressional delegations.
The President’s budget for 2012 will be announced around
February 14th. In order to express support for the
President's proposal and for funding of science in general,
we will arrange the fly-in day on 1 March, 2011.
If you might be able to participate in this one-day event,
please contact Michael Smith (smithms at ornl.gov). While you will
need to support your own travel, FRIB will offer help with
hotel reservations and scheduling of the congressional visits.
A welcome dinner and discussion will take place on the evening of
28 February. We will have a breakfast on 1 March with
instructions from House or Senate staff members on how to
most effectively conduct the visits. All events should be
completed by early afternoon on March 1st. Your participation in this event is very important.
Please consider taking the time. If you have any questions
regarding the visit, please contact Michael Smith or Brad Sherrill
(sherrill at frib.msu.edu).
December 2010:
Election of Executive Committee Members
An election of three new members of the Executive Committee was
held in December 2010. The newly elected members are: Alexandra Gade [MSU/NSCL],
Guy Savard [ANL], and Alan Wuosmaa [WMU]. The new members will replace
Thomas Glasmacher (Michigan State University),
Kim Lister (Argonne National Lab), and Witek Nazarewicz (University of Tennessee) --
who are rotating off after 3 years of service. Please thank them for their service
to the community to advance physics with unstable beams and the FRIB facility !
The new members will begin their three year term on January 1, 2011.
December 2010:
Working Group Updates for the FRIB SAC
Please remember that Working Groups need to prepare a four page or less
report to the SAC by February 4, 2011. See the news item below for more details.
October 2010:
Working Group Updates for the FRIB SAC
The FRIB Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) will meet in
February 2011 to review the status of the FRIB Working groups and
identify priorities for funding in the near term. To help in
this assessment, the Working Groups are requested to provide
the SAC with a report (four pages or less) by Feb. 4, 2011.
This report should detail: a high level overview of the science program, a
short description of the proposed equipment, the current status, and
identification of funding requirements over the next five years. Funding
requirements could include money for R&D, design, prototypes, construction,
and commissioning if the device (or prototypes) can be used at existing
laboratories before FRIB turns on. Such continued development of FRIB detector
systems -- through vigorous efforts of the Working Groups --
is crucial to maximize the early scientific impact of FRIB.
September 2010:
FRIB Compliance with NEPA established
Dr. William F. Brinkman,
Director of the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy,
signed a Finding of No Significant Impact for FRIB on Sept. 14, 2010.
This establishes FRIB’s compliance with the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA). It was expected, but the process to comply with
NEPA is challenging and must be carefully completed. The Office of Science
has determined that FRIB will not have a significant impact on
the environment and we can move forward, removing a significant
barrier to realizing FRIB.
September 2010:
FRIB Project Receives CD-1 Approval
Dr. Patricia M. Dehmer, DOE Office of Science Deputy Director for Science Programs,
approved Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) for FRIB on September 1 following a meeting of the
DOE-SC Energy Systems Acquisition Advisory Board. The approval of CD-1 establishes the
preferred
alternative for the facility design and cost/schedule range for the project.
Also approved were the FRIB Preliminary Project Execution Plan and long-lead procurements up to $10M.
With CD-1 received, the FRIB Project can enter the second budget
period of the Cooperative Agreement on Oct. 1 and proceed with Preliminary Design
in FY2011/2012 at an anticipated cost of $55 million.
March 2010:
Ninth Summer School on Exotic Beam Physics
The Ninth Summer School on Exotic Beam Physics
will be held at ORNL from August 2 - 6, 2010.
The aim of this annual school is to educate young researchers on the excitement
and challenges of radioactive ion beam physics. Through these schools, the research
community will be able to more fully exploit the opportunities created by the next
generation exotic beam facilities, such as the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB).
A unique feature of this summer school series is the hands-on activities where students
spend their afternoons in the lab of a radioactive beam facility, learning about the techniques
and instrumentation needed to carry out experiments with unstable beams.
For a list of lecturers, an online application, and more information on the summer school, please
visit our page on the summer school.
March 2010:
Scientific Advisory Committee Report and February Workshop Presentations Available
The
report of the FRIB Science Advisory Committee
on the February 2010 FRIB Equipment Workshop is now
available online at this link. Additionally, the
Workshop summary presentations are also available online.
More details on this very successful meeting can be found
on our meeting page
and also at the workshop website
http://meetings.nscl.msu.edu/frib-equipment-workshop2010/
Spring 2010:
Drafting of the FRIB CDR Science Case
In Spring 2010, the FRIB Users Organization will begin to help draft
the science case for the Conceptual Design Report (CDR) for FRIB.
More details on the mechanism and schedule for CDR drafts will
be posted as they become available.
February 20 - 22, 2010:
FRIB Experimental Equipment Meeting at MSU
There was an FRIB meeting on experimental equipment needs on
February 20-22 (noon Saturday to noon Monday) on the campus of
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan.
The goals of
this meeting included ensuring that alternatives for experimental
equipment have been considered, that adequate space is provided
in the experimental halls, and that all users communicate their
specific equipment needs to FRIB and to each other. The workshop
provided a venue for detailed consideration of concepts for
specific instruments and consideration of the physics they will enable.
Attendance by all those interested in the development of instrumentation
for FRIB, regardless of whether they are specifically involved
in one of the equipment collaborations or not, was necessary in
formulating plans for FRIB. Prior to this workshop, users and user
collaborations developed equipment ideas to be presented at the
workshop. Based on expressions of interest, a number of working
groups for the workshop were formed and announced.
For more information, see
our meeting page
as well as the
workshop website at FRIB.
February 13, 2010:
APS Meeting / Congressional Visits
Dear FRIB User:
This year the APS April Meeting is being held in Washington DC from February 13-16, 2010.
It is an opportunity for our community to visit and meet our representatives in the House and Senate,
and to encourage their support of basic scientific research. Many expert panel assessments have highlighted
the importance of basic research to the nation, however it is necessary for the scientific
community to carry that message to their representatives so they recognize it as a local issue as well as a national priority.
If you will be attending the APS April meeting and/or otherwise would like help in arranging a personal visit to
your congressional offices, please contact Brad Sherrill (Sherrill at frib.msu.edu). The Michigan State University
Washington Office will provide logistical support and help arrange visits on the dates of Monday
February 15th and Tuesday February 16th. In addition, they will offer a briefing on how
to meet with congress and staff on the evening of February 15th at the Washington Marriott
Wardman Park starting at 19:30 following the DNP Town Meeting.
Please take the time to participate in this important activity.
Sincerely,
Brad Sherrill
FRIB Chief Scientist
JANUARY 11, 2010:
Message from the FRIB Users Organization Chairman
Happy New Year to all our (potential) FRIB Users. This is an important year for FRIB as we move into
the CDR phase of the project, and start planning for real experiments. We encourage you to visit the
FRIB Users website http://fribusers.org/
(or Google fribusers) as that will be our forum for keeping
you updated on our progress.
FRIB Users List
The original RIA mailing list is a decade old, and 30% of the e-mail addresses are now incorrect.
This is important to remedy, as most of the changes apply to younger scientists who have changed jobs.
We need to fix this situation and get a reliable mailing list in order to keep everyone involved in the process.
As we move forward more rapidly, a single reliable mailing list becomes essential. It will prevent you from getting
the same e-mail from multiple sources, which is the situation we have now. It will also give us a more solid and
reliable determination of the current and potential user community. PLEASE, PLEASE take a moment to re-register for
the FRIB User group NOW. Just go to the link
http://fribusers.org/6_JOIN/join.html and fill in the online form.
We will be using the new list for the February workshop, so register now.
EQUIPMENT WORKSHOP in MSU 20-22 Feb. 2010
An equipment workshop is being held in MSU on 20-22 Feb 2010 aimed at evaluating the status of
plans for equipment for FRIB. This involves clarifying the match of equipment to the scientific goals,
indentifying the experimental infrastructure needs at FRIB and making sure they are properly
accounted for in the CDR for the facility, identifying what equipment exists and may be useful,
what can be constructed and deployed prior to FRIB coming online, and the workshop provides
a forum for developing strong teams to work on these projects. Many Working Groups are already in place
and are discussing requirements for equipment, and planning detailed designs of detectors.
You can find more information on Working Groups at the FRIB User website at
http://fribusers.org/3_GROUPS/groups.html .
This is a real opportunity for you to get involved. We hope you can come to the workshop and participate.
You can find more information
on our meeting page
and also at the workshop website
http://meetings.nscl.msu.edu/frib-equipment-workshop2010/
where you can register. Whether or not you can attend, we also hope you will join the
some of the Working Groups. Most groups have information about their activities on this FRIB Users web site.
Please contact the Conveners of the Groups that you are interested in and add your name, suggestions and ideas.
The trains are leaving the station! We would like to encourage the involvement of younger scientists,
at the senior graduate and post-doc level, as this facility will be "their" machine. We hope to have a
modest fund to help support travel and accommodation for special cases. Please contact Kim Lister
(Lister at anl.gov) if travel funding is a critical issue.
November 2009:
FRIB Users Organization Election
The winners of the election of the FRIB Users Organization Executive Committee
are:
Ani Aprahamian (University of Notre Dame)
Michael Smith (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Ingo Wiedenheover (Florida State University)
Each will serve on the Executive Committee for a term of three years
beginning on Jan. 1, 2010. They replaced outgoing Executive
Committee members Erich Ormand and Michael Wiescher whose terms expired in 2009.
See the Organization page for a
complete list of the Executive Committee Members.
October 2009:
FRIB Users Organization Meeting at the DNP Meeting in Hawaii
The FRIB Users Organization held a meeting at the DNP meeting in
Hawaii in October 2009. A summary of the meeting will be posted when available
on this page in our Gatherings Archive.
August 10, 2009:
Meeting of FRIB Equipment Collaborations at MSU
A workshop for FRIB collaborations was held immediately preceding
an MSU NSCL Users Meeting. Approximately 80 researchers participated in
four different collaboration meetings. More details can be found on
this page in our Gatherings Archive.
May 30 - 31, 2009:
First FRIB Users Organization Meeting
The inaugural meeting of the FRIB Users Organization was held at Saturday,
May 30 - Sunday, May 31, 2009, at Argonne National Lab, Argonne, Illinois.
Information on the entire meeting, including a workshop summary, can be found on
this page in our Gatherings Archive.