Neutron Second Target Station
Designing the most powerful neutron accelerator in the world
- Client
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Location
- Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States
- Size
- 500,000 square feet (11 buildings)
- Status
- In progress
Neutron scattering is an essential technique for advancing materials research that supports the U.S. economy and offers solutions to challenges in energy, security and transportation. It provides information that cannot be obtained using any other research method.
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Spallation Neutron Source is a major DOE accelerator-based neutron source facility that provides the most intense pulsed neutron beams in the world available for an international user community. The facility currently operates at a maximum energy level of approximately 1 GeV. The Second Target Station and related Proton Power Upgrade project will increase the energy level to 1.4 GeV and double the experimental beamline capacity of the facility.
A significant expansion for international research
The project includes an extension of the existing proton beamline and earth-shielded underground tunnel enclosure, a new target building, 22 neutron beamlines, multiple experimental buildings, central utility plant, central exhaust facility and a new laboratory/office research building. The complex requires extensive site and utility infrastructure development. Radiological levels associated with the accelerator, target and beamline systems require earth, steel and high-density concrete shielding, impacting planning and design for much of the project.
Planning, programming and design
Working through an IDIQ task order, we collaborated with the Second Target Station experimental and conventional facilities team to prepare the STS Conceptual Design Report which incorporates the results of previous programming and technical design studies also undertaken by the design team.
In May 2021, ORNL selected our team as the architect of record for the detailed design of the Second Target Station. Services for the detailed design began with program verification and a site configuration study. The release of the site improvement package is anticipated in the summer of 2022 and will be followed by separate procurement packages for each of the multiple facilities that make up the target station complex. Project completion and target station activation are anticipated in 2028.
