6

Panel Conclusions and Recommendations

The panel’s conclusions and recommendations are described in the preceding chapters, including key conclusions and recommendations in the summary and the conclusions and recommendations specific to each chapter which appear in Chapters 2–5.

KEY CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Key Recommendation 6-1: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) leadership should support the NIST Center for Neutron Research at inflation-adjusted pre-COVID levels, supplemented by additional budget to support full reactor operations staffing. There is an urgent need to reinstate the financial support for instrumentation, staff, and science programs, in addition to full reactor operations, to fully restart this cornerstone of neutron science and support the U.S. industrial and scientific competitiveness it enables.

Key Recommendation 6-2: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) leadership should seek congressional approval and funding to design and build a new state-of-the-art research reactor at the NIST Center for Neutron Research consistent with U.S. interest to sustain scientific competitive advantage.

Key Recommendation 6-3: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research should develop and pursue a strategy that leverages its distinguishing instrument capabilities and science programs. The strategy should align with the NIST mission, national initiatives, and a longer-term vision for the new research reactor.

Key Recommendation 6-4: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research should augment its reactor operations and safety procedures to include expectations for continuous improvement.

CHAPTER-SPECIFIC CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Overview of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research

Conclusion 2-1: Neutron science is critical to the competitiveness of the United States. The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) plays a pivotal role in neutron science and innovation, running a leading neutron program across strategic areas of national interest such as nuclear physics, quantum science, and materials characterization in partnership with industry. NCNR has an important role in education of the broader neutron science research community through graduate and postdoctoral scholars. Sustained federal funding is required to ensure continuity and growth in scientific capabilities at NCNR to maintain U.S. leadership in neutron science.

Recommendation 2-1: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research and government research funding agencies should support graduate and postdoctoral studies in the field of neutron science both to provide for current research needs and to develop a pipeline of future practitioners in industry, government, and academia.

Technical Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research

Conclusion 3-1: The prolonged pause of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) user program, as a result of the reactor shutdown, is a risk to NCNR’s ability to quickly return to its previous capacity as a premiere, world-leading user facility serving thousands of researchers per year.

Recommendation 3-1: The leadership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research should reengage the user community and bring them along on the start-up process of this user facility, including considering options to involve the user community in decisions driven by prioritization—for example, in strategic idling or upgrading of specific instruments.

Conclusion 3-2: Budget compression has prevented the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research from recruiting and/or staffing core capabilities that evolve with technology advances.

Recommendation 3-2: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) leadership should perform an analysis of the skill base that currently exists at NCNR, identifying the risks and possible gaps, and develop a plan for a sustainable future, including prioritization of areas that should be targeted for recruitment should funding become available.

National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research Reactor

Conclusion 4-1: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research has made significant progress in its safety culture since the February 2021 incident. The panel recognizes culture is a journey that takes years to cement and should be a focus of continuous improvement.

Recommendation 4-1: To ensure full operations, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research should have sufficient staff for five shifts of reactor operations to facilitate enhanced training. Also, a contingency plan for retirements and departures should be devel-

oped and presented to NIST management and key stakeholders so that all involved can evaluate its timeline, merits, and costs.

Conclusion 4-2: There is a critical shortage in access to neutron scattering facilities in the United States and globally. The existing facilities are aging or oversubscribed. New state-of-the-art facilities, such as the planned new research reactor and new instrumentation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research, are desperately needed for the United States to maintain global competitiveness in neutron science and the industries it supports.

Neutron Instrumentation at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Neutron Research Center

Conclusion 5-1: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research has a long history of excellence in providing instrumentation for hard condensed matter physics and remains a world leader in this field. This research area directly aligns with priorities outlined in the National Quantum Initiative.

Recommendation 5-1: To sustain a world-class hard condensed matter program, National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) should reinstate close collaborations with university partners. NCNR should leverage such relationships to accelerate the development of the Quantum Materials Spectrometer and ensure the instrument is staffed at levels that match its scientific capabilities.

Conclusion 5-2: The demand for high-throughput and multimodal measurement creates high demand for technical and computing expertise.

Recommendation 5-2: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research should establish a centralized software team dedicated to the long-term support and maintenance of instrument and data treatment software across the facility.

Recommendation 5-3: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research should prioritize automation campaigns on account of their initial success.

Recommendation 5-4: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) should establish a comprehensive instrument life-cycle management program that includes preventive maintenance schedules, component replacement planning, and systematic modernization timelines. NCNR should allocate dedicated funding for both routine maintenance and strategic upgrades to ensure instruments remain at the state of the art in neutron scattering capabilities.

NCNR RESPONSE TO PREVIOUS ASSESSMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

In addition to the above recommendations produced in this report, NCNR shared responses to several recommendations made in previous National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine assessments: An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research: Fiscal Year 2023 (NASEM 2024) and An Assessment of the Center for Neutron Research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology: Fiscal Year 2021 (NASEM 2022). The original recommendations and the responses are reproduced below.

2024 National Academies report Recommendation 2-4: To support the hard condensed matter science community, the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) should

• Upgrade the BT-1 power diffractometer and BT-4 instruments to make them relevant again.

NCNR Response: Instrument plan includes plans to upgrade and supplement powder diffraction capabilities to world class. BT-4 three-axis/Filter Analyzer Neutron Spectrometer would require significant investments to return to operation. At current resource levels, instrument development is limited until dedicated funds are secured.

2024 National Academies report Recommendation 2-4: To support the hard condensed matter science community, the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) should

• Fully upgrade the Spin Polarized Inelastic Neutron Spectrometer (SPINS), including the backend of the instrument, to provide a fully upgraded instrument; to accomplish this, NCNR should make the SPINS upgrade a central part of its hard condensed matter science portfolio and fund it accordingly. NCNR should not rely on funding vehicles like the National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grants to accomplish this.

NCNR Response: NCNR has secured an agreement with McMaster University to partner on the design and building of the Quantum Materials Spectrometer, an instrument that will replace SPINS with a modern cold neutron triple-axis capability.

2024 National Academies report Recommendation 4-3: The National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) should continue to fund and execute an adequate suite of capital improvement projects to better exploit the instrument suite.

NCNR Response: We agree. The development of advanced neutron instruments aligns directly with NIST’s mission to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness through cutting-edge measurement capabilities. However, current resource limitations constrain instrument development to projects requiring minimal additional capital investment. NCNR continues to seek new funding to support its instrument development efforts.

2022 National Academies report Recommendation: To minimize impact to the user community, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) leadership should make sure that the scheduled downtime for the NCNR cold source upgrade does not coincide with the planned shutdown of the High-Flux Isotope Reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for its high enriched uranium to low enriched uranium conversion and reactor vessel upgrade. NCNR staff should develop a formal plan for user access during the 2023 shutdown as well as a formal plan for user access with the other U.S. neutron facilities.

NCNR Response: The planned installation of the new NCNR cold source was delayed due to reactor recovery efforts. When it does occur, NIST will avoid overlap with the outage for beryllium reflector replacement at the High-Flux Isotope Reactor.

2022 National Academies report Key Recommendation: The Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) should take a leadership role and own this mission with full support of NIST. The Director of NCNR should commission a study to define what the research community needs for the next 50 years in addition to the economic study already commissioned. In parallel and starting as soon as possible, the Director of NIST and the Director of NCNR should be proactive with the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology, the User Group Executive Committee, the local community, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the appropriate congressional committees to ensure support and to build the case for constructing a new research reactor.

NCNR Response: NCNR held a workshop in October 2023 to discuss plans for a new neutron source at NIST, which resulted in a community-driven report on needs. NCNR also commissioned an economic impact study on