SNS Accelerator Celebrates 10 Years of Leading the Way
Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 12:22
in Physics & Chemistry
The first of its kind superconducting linear particle accelerator (LINAC) built for the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory is now celebrating 10 years of successful operations. The SNS machine reflects the evolution of particle accelerators: While the first portion of the facility uses room temperature copper structures similar to many of the world's accelerators, the rest of the machine takes advantage of superconducting materials to deliver a high energy beam more efficiently and with fewer losses. Accelerators began incorporating superconducting cavities in the 1970s, but the SNS LINAC is the first large-scale hadron accelerator to use superconducting cavities.