Introduction
Nuclear science probes the origin, evolution, and structure of matter comprising the cosmos. The coming two decades promise breathtaking progress in this quest and in the development and application of new nuclear techniques for material science, medicine, and bio- and nanotechnology. Countries in Europe and Asia are investing in advanced new rare isotope facilities to compete globally in this important field of science.
While the current facilities at NSCL are on the cutting edge, additional investments are needed to ensure ongoing U.S. competitiveness.
In his July 2006 Memorandum to the National Science Board, NSF Director Arden Bement, Jr. describes NSCL's likely preeminent status for the next decade while addressing challenges that lay further in the future:
"The NSCL is the premier laboratory in North America for generating isotopes using the beam fragmentation method. As the nation's largest university-campus based nuclear-science facility, the NSCL plays a unique role in educating the next generation of nuclear scientists and accelerator physicists and engineers by providing outstanding hands-on learning opportunities to a large number of undergraduate and graduate students and postdocs.
"The management of NSCL by the MSU faculty has been exemplary; the operation of the facility and service to a broad community has been excellent; and the funding level has been reviewed by a series of review panels and found to be very cost effective.
"The lifetime of NSCL in its present reincarnation is on the order of ten years. The NSCL is now in a world-leadership position and will be a primary center of rare isotope studies until overtaken by the next generation rare isotope facility, sometime in the next decade.
"Thus, the NSCL-CCF serves as a focal point, both for the immediate generation of experiments, and for planning, design and possible construction of any future facility aimed at the succeeding generation of experiments using beams of unstable isotopes."
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Operation of NSCL as a national user facility is supported by the Experimental Nuclear Physics Program of the U.S. National Science Foundation.