Ponente
Descripción
Neutrons For Science (NFS) is the operational facility of SPIRAL-2, located at GANIL (France). It provides an intense neutron source in the 1-40 MeV range, produced by the interaction of proton or deuteron beams delivered by the LINEAR accelerator of SPIRAL-2 with lithium or beryllium converters. NFS mainly consists of two experimental areas: the converter room, where the neutrons are produced, and a time-of-flight (TOF) hall with a well collimated pulsed neutron beam. In the converter room, a flux of about $10^{10}$ n/s/cm$^{2}$ is available for activation measurements or component irradiations. A fast pneumatic sample transfer system allows the measurement of nuclei with short half-lives. The long TOF room allows several experiments to be performed simultaneously. The size of the room and the time resolution of the beam allow a precise measurement of the neutron energy. The low background noise allows the use of neutron or gamma detectors. A wide range of physics cases is studied at NFS, from fundamental research to industrial applications. NFS received its first beam in December 2019, and commissioning started with proton beams in autumn 2020. Experiments at the NFS started in October 2021. After a description of the facility, the main characteristics of NFS are presented. Technical and operational difficulties will be discussed and some examples of experiments already performed will be presented.
