Following the successful change out of the target vessel, the Spallation Neutron Source is apparently ready to resume production of neutrons on a research-scale Wednesday evening. The SNS team has scurried to get things back in order following the March 22 failure of the previous vessel.
In a message via email Wednesday afternoon, SNS operations chief Kevin Jones said:
“This morning we completed the Target 14 installation process and then conducted a series of very successful measurements to study stress and strain on the target vessel with controlled bursts of beam pulses at different power levels. We completed that work at about 3 p.m. today, and are now operating at 400 kW and beginning our programmed ramp to 850 kW. We will be operating for users again starting this evening.”
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