ANSTO adds to its landmark research facilities
ANSTO's Bragg Institute, Australia's leading neutron research facility, has gained approval for an exciting new building extension.
ANSTO's research capabilities are expanding. A world-class new facility will create room for all the staff required for the full suite of eighteen neutron-beam instruments at ANSTO's iconic Open Pool Australian Lightwater (OPAL) reactor. This new infrastructure will allow the neutron guide hall to have every one of the available beam holes fully instrumented and utilised. Currently, ANSTO has thirteen of its neutron beam instruments in operation, or under construction.
The building will integrate all the laboratories, equipment and staff of the National Deuteration Facility, bringing them together in a centralised location. This will lead to better service for the Bragg Institute's users who want to work with the instruments to deuterate molecules and then perform small-angle neutron scattering and/or reflectometry at OPAL.
The production of deuterated molecules is important because when molecules containing hydrogen(1H) and deuterium (2H or D) are placed in front of a neutron beam, these two isotopes scatter neutrons quite differently (ie they have a different scattering length density). Molecular deuteration of subunits of a molecule, or complex, enables the creation of contrast between the deuterated (2H) components and those containing hydrogen (1H) in a system that would otherwise offer far less information to researchers. Once a molecule has been deuterated, researchers can then use techniques such as neutron scattering and reflectometry more effectively. Having all of these instruments in a single location will help to streamline this kind of research.
Funding for this exciting new building complex, which is designed to hold up to 150 personnel, including users, long-term research visitors, and students or post-doctoral researchers, was approved by the Government in July.
Find out more in the Bragg Peaks August 2010 newsletter.
Posted: 6 September 2010