Australian Neutron Beam Users Group
The Australian Neutron Beam User Group awards were announced on 9 November 2022, at the AINSE ANBUG Neutron Scattering Symposium.
Congratulations to all of the recipients! Each of the awardees has made unique and valuable scientific, technical, and leadership contributions to the neutron scattering community.
The award ceremony was held at the International Conference for Neutron Scattering, and a video can be viewed below:
The ANSTO powder diffraction workshop is on again from Nov 3rd-5th at the ANSTO Lucas Heights campus. The workshop is aimed at Australian and New Zealand PhD students wishing to learn the technique of Rietveld refinement in order to analyse their X-ray and neutron powder diffraction data. For more information and to apply, please visit
https://www.ansto.gov.au/whats-on/powder-diffraction-workshop-2022.
For the program and registration, please visit https://www.nbri-events.org/agenda/icamt-2021/
At the ANBUG Annual General Meeting in November 2020, Dr Jamie Schulz, the Director of the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering (ACNS), provided an update on the operations, including the effects of COVID19. He also announced an exciting new development: the beginning of a new community engagement program in 2021 to build the scientific case for developing a second neutron guide hall, along with a new generation of instruments. In case you missed it, a copy of his presentation slides are linked below..
Please find his slides in the link below.
Neutron reflectometry is a powerful technique to study thin films with nanometer-scale precision. RefNx is open-source software developed by Andrew Nelson at ANSTO to fit and interpret neutron reflectometry patterns. He has kindly provided a series of video tutorials explaining each step of the process.
The June edition of the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering Newsletter is available at the link below:
https://www.ansto.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/ACNS_Newsletter_2.pdf
The following is an excerpt of the director’s address from Dr. Jamie Schulz:
Well, the start to 2020 has been an interesting one with catastrophic bushfires and the COVID-19 pandemic which have both affected the user program and the COVID-19 pandemic us all.
On 23rd March ANSTO moved to an essential and critical operations mode with all scientific research infrastructure being shutdown unless they provide supporting functions for essential and critical operations (reactor operation, radiopharmaceutical production, site maintenance etc) or are undertaking COVID-19 related research. ACNS has had an open call for COVID-19 related research using our neutron scattering instruments (see the Beamtime Applications section). Since then the OPAL reactor continued to operate whilst the neutron scattering instruments were shut down and ACNS staff are mainly working from home.
Another direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was the postponement of the OPAL long shutdown that was scheduled to occur in June 2020. The primary reason for the OPAL long shutdown is to replace the TG123 primary shutter which feeds neutrons to the thermal neutron beam instruments in the Neutron Guide Hall. The benefits of TG123 primary shutter replacement are two-fold, firstly the in-pile neutron guides have deteriorated and we have observed a decrease in neutron flux on the thermal instruments and secondly to install the TG2 neutron guide which will provide 2 additional beamlines for new instruments. Given the likely impact of COVID-19 was expected to be at least a year a decision was made to postpone the long shutdown to June 2021. The OPAL reactor schedule to the end of 2021 is available here.
We commenced the return to the ANSTO site on Monday 25th May and we are currently undertaking maintenance, upgrades and commissioning activities now to ensure number of days available for our users is maximised later in the year as travel restrictions ease. The ACNS user program will recommence after the scheduled OPAL reactor shutdown finishes on the 23rd June.
We will start with the current backlog of proposals that were not able to be run due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and the ANSTO shutdown, initially using mail-in and then progressively to Sydney-basin users, interstate users, New Zealand users (if the Australia-New Zealand travel bubble is created) and finally international users. We have number of upgrade projects underway including: installation of a high-resolution detector on Bilby to allow measurements to lower Q; a redesign and upgrade of Koala Laue Diffractometer; two Australian Research Council (ARC) LinkageEquipment and Facilities Grants both being lead by the University of New South Wales for rheometry and high-pressure sample environment equipment; NSW Research Attraction and Acceleration Program Grant for an in-situ Laser Metal Deposition System; and finally $6.7M from the Australian Governments Research Infrastructure Investment Plan for equipment replacement and upgrades in 2021-22.
Stay safe and we are looking forward to seeing you again at ANSTO soon.
Dr Jamie Schulz
The following update is taken from the ACNS website.
https://www.ansto.gov.au/user-access
The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering will recommence user operations from 23 June.
All Users coming to ANSTO are required to undertake a COVID-19 Induction for the specific facility visited prior to site access. Local area inductions will also be provided outlining safe working practices (e.g. social distancing, area occupancy limits, personal protective equipment).
The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering is now accepting proposals for the 2021-1 round (Jan – Jun 2021). ANSTO will advise as soon as possible when other facilities and platforms will be open for submission.
Check https://www.ansto.gov.au/user-access for up-to-date information.
The information below is taken the email from the ANSTO User Office on 20 May 2020:
As we prepare to recommence our user program, we will complete planned maintenance and infrastructure will be brought back to a state of operational readiness. We do not expect to resume operations at full capacity during this phase.
Our commitment is to
· Address first those approved experiments/projects postponed from the 2020-1 round due to COVID-19 measures. We will contact the impacted users soon to discuss restarting these experiments;
· Consider mail-in of samples, where possible, subject to agreement with Research Infrastructure contacts;
· Progressively allow users on site, from local/state, national and international institutions depending on Government and respective institutional travel advice, and ANSTO risk assessments;
· Award proposals under the 2020-2 (Lucas Heights) or 2020/2 (Clayton) rounds contingent on when user operations resume; and
· Reopen new proposal submissions once back-log is addressed and normal operations re-established.
ANSTO VIC (Australian Synchrotron) will recommence regular user operations from June, following the principles outlined above. As Government restrictions ease, ANSTO NSW will assess the risk of resuming a reduced level of user program that will permit the presence of users on site.
