News Article - July 8, 2011

LENS group hosts Second Meeting of the Union for Compact Accelerator-driven Neutron Sources (UCANS-II)

July 8, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. --

The Low Energy Neutron Source (LENS) group hosted the Second Meeting of the Union of Compact Accelerator-driven Neutron Sources (UCANS-II) at CEEM from July 5 - 8, 2011. Fifty participants from six countries attended the meeting, and the program included 25 speakers from 12 member institutions.

UCANS was formed in 2009 to support the ongoing development of small accelerator-based neutron sources around the world, and to promote the exchange of information on emerging science and novel applications relevant to long-pulsed and/or medium-flux neutron sources. There are currently thirteen member institutions in the Union: Indiana University, Oak Ridge National Lab, Argonne National Lab, Tsinghua University (China), Peking University (China), Sun Yat-sen University (China), RIKEN (Japan), KEK (Japan), Hokkaido University (Japan), KAERI (Korea), INFN (Italy), ESS-Bilbao (Spain), and Helmholtz-Zentrum (Germany). The inaugural meeting of the Union was held in Tsinghua University in Beijing in August 2010.

Dr. Paul Sokol, Chair of the Organizing Committee and Director of LENS, welcomed the participants to the meeting, and Dr. Sarita Soni (Vice Provost for Research – Indiana University Bloomington, Associate Vice President – Indiana University) gave the Opening Remarks. Dr. Jack Carpenter chaired the Program Committee, and also led many of the discussions after each presentation.

Participants of the Second Meeting of the Union for Compact Accelerator-driven Neutron Sources (UCANS-II)

The two and a half day program began with facility status reports on neutron sources in Tsinghua University, Indiana University, and INFN. The sessions on Moderator Neutronics and Innovative Instrumentation included developments in pulsed neutron imaging, neutron-antineutron oscillations, boron neuron capture therapy, and focusing neutron beams, plus reports on experiments such as the LENOS and SPES projects at INFN, and FLEX at the Helmholtz-Zentrum. The Poster Session on Thursday afternoon featured 25 posters from 12 member institutions, and the final Emerging Science session focused on future directions and possibilities in industrial applications, 3D tomography, and small angle neutron scattering. Guest speakers from the Air Force Institute, Crane Naval Base and Varian Medical Systems also provided valuable insights on practical applications of neutron sources from the users’ perspective.

The joint proceedings of UCANS-I and UCANS-II will be published early in 2012 in the Physics Procedia series of Elsevier.