News and events

Beam Time Allocations for Second Half of 2012

10-11 May 2012

Today, 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 2012.

In general, the impression was that the quality of both proposals and external reviewing has been maintained. Allocations of beam time on Quokka and Platypus have been put on hold pending the return to service of OPAL's cold neutron source. But 64 thermal-neutron experiments were recommended for approval, with beam time allocations as follows:

61 days on Echidna;
66 days on Wombat;
72 days on Kowari;
61 days on Koala; and
68 days on Taipan.

The variation in time allocated is primarily due to existing commitments to program proposals. One new program was recommended for approval in this round, and its time allocations on Wombat and Echidna are included in the figures given above.

First SANS Paper using material produced by the National Deuteration Facility

7 May 2012

Small-angle neutron scattering work done using material produced by the bio-deuteration team at the National Deuteration Facility has been accepted for publication by the prestigious American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. While the material was produced at ANSTO, the small-angle scattering data were taken at the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble, France. The work was a collaboration between University of Queensland and ANSTO, and the full author list and title are as follows: “Low resolution solution structures of Munc18:Syntaxin complexes indicate an open binding mode driven by the Syntaxin N-peptide” by M. P. Christie, A. E. Whitten, G. J. King, S.-H. Hu, R. J. Jarrott, A. P. Duff, P. Callow, B. M. Collins, D. E. James and J. L. Martin. This is the second article from the user program at the bio-deuteration component at the National Deuteration Facility.

Planning for Major Shutdowns of OPAL and the Neutron Guide Hall towards the end of 2012

30 April 2012

Looking forward to the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013, OPAL will be shut down for 6 weeks commencing on 4th November, in order (1) to perform major scheduled 5-year maintenance on the reactor and (2) to install the in-pile components for the new CG-2 guide, which will serve our new time-of-flight SANS instrument BILBY.

In mid-December, our TAIPAN thermal 3-Axis spectrometer will resume user service, and the other new instruments in the Reactor Beam Hall (SIKA cold 3-Axis spectrometer) and DINGO neutron radiography/tomography/imaging station) will be able to receive neutrons, depending on the status of their licences.

However, the instruments in the Neutron Guide Hall will likely remain shut down until the end of February or March 2013, in order (1) to install the out-of-pile (in-bunker) components of CG-2, (2) to perform major remediation to all four of the original guides which have degraded in performance since OPAL was commissioned, and (3) to make major changes to the CG-3 guide which feeds PLATYPUS, and install components and shielding for the KOOKABURRA ultra-SANS instrument and the EMU backscattering spectrometer.

Largest Sample so far at OPAL

16-28 April 2012

Over this period, we have run the largest sample so far on any of OPAL's neutron beam instruments: a 630kg section of natural-gas pipeline with a girth weld, from TWI Ltd., in Cambridge, UK.

Strains were scanned using our KOWARI strain scanner in all three principal directions in and around the weld.

No extra cuts were made in the piece, which was cantilevered from the sample stage, in order to place the weld at the centre of rotation of KOWARI.

The project is led by Elvin Eren (front right) from TWI, and the idea is to investigate the variability of mechanical properties along the circumference of such girth welds.

First OPAL Paper using Bio-deuterated Material Produced at the NDF

27 April 2012

The May edition of Soft Matter features work done on our PLATYPUS neutron reflectometer, using material produced by the bio-deuteration team within the National Deuteration Facility. The work was a collaboration between ANSTO and the University of Queensland, and the full reference is M. Dimitrijev-Dwyer, L. He, M. James, A. Nelson, L. Wang and A. P. J. Middelberg, "The effects of acid hydrolysis on protein biosurfactant molecular, interfacial, and foam properties: pH responsive protein hydrolysates", Soft Matter 8(19), 5131-5139 (2012). This is the first publication with data from the OPAL Reactor, using bio-deuterated material produced by the National Deuteration Facility.

Update on OPAL and its Cold Neutron Source

24 April 2012

Today OPAL returned to service after a short unplanned shutdown. We had successfully taken the cold source to the liquid state on Friday 20th April, but experienced problems again by early Monday morning, this time in the out-of-pile cryogenic system. This means that we are unlikely to have cold neutrons from OPAL again until mid-June. The next scheduled reactor shutdowns are 30 April - 3 May and 10-15 June. In the meantime, thermal neutron service to ECHIDNA, WOMBAT, KOALA, KOWARI and TAIPAN has resumed. We apologise to the users of QUOKKA and PLATYPUS for this further disruption and will reschedule the displaced experiments later this year.

Bragg Institute Advisory Committee Meets

19-20 April 2012

The Bragg Institute Advisory Committee, which gives strategic advice to the Institute, met today at ANSTO under the chairmanship of Prof. Peter Colman (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute). The whole committee was present, and we were glad to welcome for the first time Dr. Cathy Foley, Chief of Materials Science and Engineering at CSIRO.

Workshop on Second Guide Hall for OPAL

16-18 April 2012

Today, ANSTO and AINSE are hosting a major workshop with the domestic and overseas scientific communities to explore the scientific and technological opportunities presented by the chance to build a second guide hall on the south side of the OPAL Reactor. The reactor was designed from outset with this expansion path in mind, and this would allow an eventual complement of thirty or more neutron beam instruments. The workshop will also consider the case for installing a hot source, a second cold source, a positron source and other innovative technology along with the expansion. Approximately 100 attendees are expected. The first day covers the science opportunities, with expert talks on: Magnetism, Superconductivity, Energy Materials, Earth Sciences, Fundamental Physics, Polymers, Biology and Deuteration, Soft Matter, Materials Engineering, Science with Positrons, in addition to some technological talks. The second day is in workshop mode, looking at Scientific Opportunities in the morning and Technology opprtunities in the afternoon. The third day will entail writing the report and summarising at the end.

Polarised Helium-3 Station on its way to Australia

12 April 2012

Our new state-of-the-art Helium-3 Polarising Station has left the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble, France, where it was built for us, and it is now on its way to ANSTO. Congratulations to David Jullien and his team: the station reached its performance goals in a very short time after it was built. We expect the system to arrive in late June and commissioning will take place in September after we reconnect and test everything. This project is managed by Hal Lee.

Major New Funding for Energy Materials

10 April 2012

The Institute is a participant in a new $6M 5-year project entitled “Solving the Energy Waste Roadblock”. The project has been funded by CSIRO’s Science and Industry Endowment Fund and involves Sydney University, CSIRO, Monash University, the Universities of Melbourne, New South Wales and Adelaide and the CO₂ Cooperative Research Centre. The idea is to develop innovative new ways to capture and transform carbon dioxide generated from the burning of fossil fuels. ANSTO has already hired one postdoc, Sam Duyker, and is in the process of hiring a second with this funding. Our main contribution, which is managed by Vanessa Peterson, will be to use the neutron scattering instruments at OPAL to characterise the materials under in-situ gas-loading conditions. For more detail, see ANSTO's press release.

Update on Status of Cold Neutron Source

3 April 2012

Unfortunately, on 8th March 2012, we noticed indications that one of two primary compressors for our cold-neutron source might be experiencing problems, and it was shut down as a preventive measure. During the 18-31 March scheduled reactor shutdown, the air end for this compressor was replaced. However, there are still strong indications that reliable operation cannot be guaranteed, and the OPAL Reactor has restarted operations, but without the cold source. As a consequence, neither the QUOKKA nor the PLATYPUS instruments, which are fed by the cold source, have operated since 8 March. ANSTO aims to reinstate the cold neutron service in the third week of April. Those users displaced by these problems will have their experiments rescheduled in the coming months.

New Scientist arrives for TAIPAN 3-Axis Spectrometer

2 April 2012

We are glad to welcome Dr. Kirrily Rule as instrument scientist for our TAIPAN thermal-neutron 3-Axis Spectrometer. Kirrily comes to us most recently from the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin in Germany, where she was responsible for the FLEX instrument. Kirrily started her research career with us at the Bragg Institute, as a PhD student enrolled at Monash University in Melbourne, and she has also worked at McMaster University in Canada. She joins Drs. Sergei Danilkin and Anton Stampfl on TAIPAN.

Science Magazine Article from ECHIDNA

30 March 2012

Today's edition of Science features an article entitled "Hydrocarbon
Separations in a Metal-Organic Framework with Open Iron(II)
Coordination Sites", resulting from work perfomed on our
ECHIDNA high-resolution powder diffractometer.
These materials have the ability to separate different components
of natural gas, for instance propane and ethylene, from one another,
a task which currently demands a good deal of energy: the efficiency
of the low-temperature distillation process currently used in industry
might be significantly improved. The work results from a collaboration
with University of California at Berkeley and NIST in the USA, and is
the first Science article resulting from work done at the OPAL Reactor.

Australian Institute of Physics meets at ANSTO

26 March 2012

Today the Executive of the Australian Institute of Physics convened at the Bragg Institute. In addition to normal meeting business, and touring the neutron beam facilities at the OPAL Reactor, a lunch with physicists from around ANSTO was held in the OPAL Meal Room.

Reflectivity Experiments Featured on ABC and in the Sydney Morning Herald

17-19 March 2012

Work from the Institute's facilities has been featured in both the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC over the last few days, with the headlines "Hospital hero? This frog has the makings of a lifesaver" and "Frog skin protein may help fight superbugs", respectively. This media attention results from a recent paper entitled "Structural Studies of the Antimicrobial Peptide Maculatin 1.1 in Supported Lipid Bilayers" in the European Biophysical Journal, resulting from a collaboration between Frances Separovic's group at University of Melbourne, researchers at Monash University and Anton Le Brun, Paramjit Bansal and Mike James in the Bragg Institute. The research made use of our PLATYPUS neutron reflectometer, our X-ray reflectometer and our quartz crystal microbalance in the National Deuteration Facility.

Endeavour Fellow joins us from Italy for 6 months

15 March 2012

Today, Dr. Antonio Benedetto, from University of Messina, joins us for 6 months under the Australian Government's Endeavour Award Scheme. Dr. Benedetto is based in Italy, and will work with us on correlating small-angle neutron scattering with existing quasi-elastic neutron scattering data on cryo- and non-protected proteins. He is also expected to contribute to our work in quasi-elastic neutron scattering for food-science problems on our new PELICAN and EMU spectrometers.

9th OPAL/NDF Proposal Round Closed Today

15 March 2012

Our 9th proposal round closed today, with 181 proposals across 5 thermal- and two cold-neutron instruments, and both Chemical and Bio-Deuteration at the National Deuteration Facility. Excluding existing approved programs and the mail-in system on ECHIDNA, 1129 beam days were requested across ECHIDNA, WOMBAT, KOALA, KOWARI, TAIPAN, PLATYPUS and QUOKKA. Including strong demand from the National Science Council of Taiwan, roughly 34% of demand was from overseas (China, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, the USA, Canada and 7 other countries in Asia and Europe). 45% of demand was from Australian universities, CSIRO and the Australian Synchrotron, and 21% from ANSTO itself. These proposals will now go out for external review by up to 5 referees, with the final recommendations on allocation of beam time, by the Program Advisory Committee in May 2012. Approved experiments will be run, starting in July 2012. The next proposal round is open, with a closing date of 15 September 2012.

Leadership Role in the International Centre for Diffraction Data

28 February 2012

Dr. Vanessa Peterson has been elected to the Board of Directors of the International Centre for Diffraction Data, a non-profit scientific organization dedicated to collecting, editing, publishing, and distributing powder-diffraction data for the identification of crystalline materials, with a term from 2012 to 2014.

Kookaburra has Landed

27 February 2012

The major components of our new KOOKABURRA Ultra-Small-Angle-Neutron-Scattering instrument have been delivered and located in their position in the OPAL Neutron Guide Hall: the motion stages for the multi-bounce perfect-silicon crystals before and after the sample, and the large granite table. The KOOKABURRA project is managed by Dr. Christine Rehm, and is expected to take its first neutrons early in 2013.

Beam Instruments Advisory Group meets to review our Major Capital Projects

23 - 24 February 2012

Today, the Beam Instruments Advisory Group, chaired by Dr. Dan Neumann (NIST Center for Neutron Research, USA), met to review progress on all of our major capital projects, including the $37M Neutron Beam Expansion Project. The latter includes the BILBY Time-of-Flight Small-Angle Instrument, the DINGO Neutron Radiography/Tomography/Imaging Station, and the EMU Back-Scattering Spectrometer.

Anna Paradowska elected Member of National Committee on Applied Mechanics

16 February 2012

Dr. Anna Paradowska, one of our researchers responsible for our KOWARI Strain Scanner, has been appointed to the National Committee on Applied Mechanics of Engineers Australia. The committee is part of the Mechanical College, the peak body for mechanical engineering in Australia, and covers: Noise & Vibration; Robotics; Machine Condition Monitoring; Tribology; Machine Design and Applications; Fracture Mechanics; and Materials Behaviour and Fabrication Technology.

Overseas Synchrotron has Neutron Scattering Opportunities Based at OPAL

6 February 2012

The Taiwan Neutron Program, which is administered by the National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre in Hsinchu, has advertised a number of jobs to be based in the Bragg Institute, using the neutron beam facilities at the OPAL Research Reactor. Specifically there are opportunities for a group leader, a powder-diffraction scientist, a small-angle neutron scattering scientist and a number of postdoctoral fellows. The closing date is 1 March 2012.

International Workshop on Current State and Future of Neutron Stress Diffractometers

10 - 12 January 2012

Together with AINSE and the Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble, France, we are hosting a Workshop on the Current State and Future of Neutron Stress Diffractometers. A total of 26 researchers have come from 3 Australian universities, DSTO, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, South Africa, the USA and several European countries, in addition to ANSTO's Institute of Materials Engineering and the Bragg Institute. Sessions include: State of the Art in Diffraction Techniques for Stress Measurements, Diffractometers and Detectors, Neutron Optics, Complementary and Subsidiary Techniques, and Current and Future Challenges.

Forward Look to 2012

1 January 2012

Happy New Year to our users and collaborators! And we look forward to serving you and collaborating with you in 2012. Many big new things will occur in 2012: specifically, we expect to make the following substantial new strides:

Towards the end of 2012, OPAL will take a long shutdown to allow installation of the in-pile components for the CG-2 split guide that feeds the new BILBY time-of-flight SANS instrument. This shutdown will commence no earlier than November 1st, but it could consume all of November and December. The reactor operating schedule for late-2012 is not yet issued, but there will likely be at least 100 beam days between 1st July and 31st October. These beam days will be available to the current proposal round that closes on 15th March 2012, and which will be assessed by the Program Advisory Committee meeting on 10-11 May 2012.

Also, by year's end, we expect the new OPAL office building on the south side of the reactor to be essentially complete, and ready for occupation in early 2013. The Institute, will then move approximately 50 of our staff there, in order to move all personnel out of the cabins in the Neutron Guide Hall, and free them up for the four extra instruments that will come on line in 2013. In fact, all major components for the BILBY, DINGO, EMU and KOOKABURRA instruments should on site by the end of 2012.

In the more immediate term, our PELICAN time-of-flight spectrometer should perform its first user experiments, and the Taiwan-funded SIKA cold 3-axis spectrometer should have accepted its first neutrons. The ARC-funded beryllium-filter option on TAIPAN, should also have accepted neutrons.

And looking further out into the future, in April 2012, we are hosting a large international workshop directed at making the case for, and analysing the scientific and technical opportunities to realise, a second guide hall at the OPAL reactor. Once built, this would bring the number of neutron beam instruments up to 30 or more. In addition, the Institute is involved in the organisation of the following meetings during the coming year:

10 - 12 January 2012, Current State and Future of Neutron Stress Diffractometers, ANSTO

16 - 18 April 2012, Workshop on Second Guide Hall for OPAL, ANSTO

17 - 20 September 2012, Sample Environment at Neutron Scattering Facilities, Amora Hotel Jamison, Sydney

18 - 23 November 2012, 2012 International Conference on Small-Angle Scattering (SAS2012), Sydney Convention Centre

25 - 28 November 2012, Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter by Scattering Methods Workshop (in celebration of Professor John W. White's 75th birthday), Hunter Valley (just north of Sydney)

6 December 2012, Bragg Symposium - Celebrating 100 Years of Crystallography, Adelaide