News, media & research

Please join us in congratulating Dehong Yu, who has been awarded a three-year guest professorship at Shandong University, in Jinan, China.

Today our nuclear regulator, ARPANSA, gave approval to commence neutron beam testing of DINGO, our new neutron radiography/tomography/imaging station. DINGO is the tenth user instrument to be completed at the OPAL Research Reactor.

A number of significant staff changes have recently occurred in the Institute:  most significantly, Dr. Helen Maynard-Casely joins us from the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne.

Today, the first Laue diffraction image was taken on our JOEY Laue crystal-alignment station, from a single crystal of CeVO₃. 

OPAL’s cold neutron source successfully returned to operation yesterday. With respect to the user program using cold neutrons, we will now operate in "friendly-user" mode for quite some time on our QUOKKA and PLATYPUS instruments. 

Australia is well represented at this week's International Conference on Neutron Scattering in Edinburgh, Scotland.  

ANSTO has secured the rights to host the 2014 International Workshop on Polarised Neutrons in Condensed Matter Investigations, in Sydney, between 15th and 18th September 2014.  

Today, OPAL's cold neutron source was warmed up, as a preventive measure, in order to investigate some issues with its cryogenic system. 

OPAL’s cold neutron source returned to operation on Thursday 27th June, and the reactor itself resumed full-power operations after a short routine shutdown yesterday. 

Today our nuclear regulator, ARPANSA, gave approval to commence neutron beam testing of JOEY, our new Laue alignment camera. When fully operational JOEY will not be available through the normal proposal system.

Research performed using our WOMBAT high-intensity powder diffractometer, on the Giant Magnetocaloric Effect in Pr_0.5Y_0.5Mn₂Ge₂ has been published in the prestigious physics journal Physical Review Letters. 

Following up on the last update on 16 March, ANSTO remains on track with the short-term plan to return cold neutrons to service by the end of July.

Over the last two days, the Program Advisory Committee chaired by Prof. Anton Middelberg (University of Queensland), met to assess the scientific merit of beam-time and deuteration proposals submitted for time between July and December 2013.

Today, we conducted the first user experiment using the new gas-handling/sorption system (from Hiden Isochema).

Today, the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, took over operational responsibility for the OPAL Reactor's new SIKA cold-neutron 3-axis spectrometer. 

Today we measured our first inelastic neutron scattering spectrum on our PELICAN time-of-flight spectrometer, from a plastic sample, using an incident neutron energy of 3.8 meV.

At 5.30 this morning, the stainless-steel vacuum vessel for our new EMU backscattering spectrometer was delivered to ANSTO.

PELICAN has recently recommenced “hot commissioning”, following the 5-month shutdown of OPAL’s Neutron Guide Hall, and receipt of regulatory permission to run with thermal rather than cold neutrons.

Today, our QUOKKA small-angle neutron scattering instrument was back in service and working well, albeit with thermal rather than cold neutrons.

A 130-page book on the first decade of the Bragg Institute's existence has now been published.