Los Alamos Neutron Science Center

The Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), formerly known as the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), is one of the world's most powerful linear accelerators. It is located in Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico in Technical Area 53. It was the most powerful linear accelerator in the world when it was opened in June 1972. The technology used in the accelerator was developed under the direction of nuclear physicist Louis Rosen. The facility is capable of accelerating protons up to 800 MeV. Multiple beamlines allow for a variety of experiments to be run at once, and the facility is used for many types of research in materials testing and neutron science. It is also used for medical radioisotope production.

LANSCE provides the scientific community with intense sources of neutrons with the capability of performing experiments supporting civilian and national security research. Agencies and programs of the Department of Energy – the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Office of Science, the Office of Nuclear Energy, and the Office of Science and Technology – have been the principal sponsors of LANSCE. LANSCE serves an international user community conducting diverse forefront basic and applied research.

History

Since 1972, the 800-million-electronvolt (MeV) accelerator and its attendant facilities at Technical Area 53 of the Los Alamos National Laboratory have been a resource to a broad international community of scientific researchers. The Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility (LAMPF), as it was originally called, hosted about 1000 users per year to perform medium energy physics experiments.