EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams project has achieved yet another major milestone.
The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, or DOE-SC, has announced that FRIB passed the agency’s Office of Project Assessment review that took place earlier this year. The report confirms FRIB has met all milestones and expectations to date and is ready to begin the next phase of the project. The university has recently had several productive meetings with DOE-SC to determine the project schedule and budget for the next phase.
According to the report, the project is “being properly managed,” the design is “technically sound” and the “cost estimate and project schedule are complete and reasonable.”
In addition, the report said the “level of detail presented meets or, in some cases, exceeds that of a typical accelerator project” at this stage.
The report further stated: “The committee was impressed with the project team, the level of organization, and progress made by the FRIB project since the September 2011 DOE/Office of Science review.”
“We are very pleased the committee recognized the great work being done by our FRIB team,” said MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon. “We are excited about moving forward on the project. We will continue working with the Department of Energy, as well as the Congress and administration, to ensure that FRIB becomes a reality.”
Charged by the U.S. DOE-SC Office of Nuclear Physics, the review committee assessed all aspects of the FRIB project - technical, cost, schedule, management, environment, safety, health and quality assurance.
The committee was led by Daniel Lehman, director of the DOE-SC Office of Project Assessment, and included experts from the DOE Office of Science, Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility.
The FRIB project began three years ago under a cooperative agreement between the DOE-SC and MSU signed on June 8, 2009. Critical Decision 1 was approved on Sept. 1, 2010.
FRIB will be a new cutting-edge national user facility for nuclear science, providing intense beams of rare isotopes to better enable scientists to make discoveries about the properties of these isotopes. This will allow researchers to gain deeper understanding into key scientific questions including the origins of stars and the universe. Isotopes discovered may have important applications for medicine, national security, metallurgy and other uses as well.
The facility also will be critical to preparing the next generation of scientists. MSU’s nuclear physics doctoral program was named the nation’s best by U.S. News and World Report last year.
This marks the second round of good news the project has recently received. Last week the National Research Council issued a report stating that FRIB should remain a major priority, calling for the “timely completion” of the project.
The project is on track and managing toward early completion in 2019.
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