The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB, is a proposed construction project at MSU that would help the university continue its research in nuclear physics at a faster pace than it ever has before. If the project, which is proposed to cost more than half a billion dollars, is completed, it would not only benefit the scientific community, but help give the university worldwide recognition as a main contributor to the research of nuclear physics.
The new facility, which would be built on the infrastructure of the facility currently known as the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, or NSCL, would help researchers make discoveries about properties of isotopes, the physics of nuclei, astrophysics, fundamental interactions and applications to society.
The new facility would be able to produce isotopes at a rate roughly 100,000 to 1 million times faster than its current speed. Last spring, The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, or DOE-SC, evaluated the proposed plan for FRIB and determined the project was well managed and designed, placing it closer to possible construction as early as spring 2013.
But the project is facing funding difficulties due to gridlock in Washington, as it was originally promised $55 million in funding, which was then diminished to $22 million after a White House recommendation and is now sitting around $40 million if the Energy and Water Appropriations bill passes the U.S. Senate in its current form. This bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives in early June, and although many Michigan lawmakers are fighting viciously to make sure the project receives an appropriate amount of funding, some in Washington, D.C., want to cut spending in all facets, including research funding.
This facility should be receiving support from both sides of the aisle because it will bring researchers from around the world to MSU to make new discoveries in nuclear physics, giving both professionals and students vital research opportunities.
FRIB construction is set to finish around 2020, according to the construction and facility managers, and if the project moves forward with the proper funding, this could be a pivotal step in nuclear physics, placing MSU at the forefront of nuclear research along with the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, in Switzerland.
Development of the new facility has gained recent support after the discovery of the Higgs boson particle, which is said to be the reason particles have mass.
The discoveries that could be made by researchers in FRIB could change current scientific thought about nuclear physics and molecular biology. As researchers in FRIB make these new discoveries, it will give the university greater recognition as an integral part of research in nuclear physics, affirming the university still believes in the importance of academics and research.
U.S. lawmakers and MSU should continue to move forward with this project. Upon its proposed completion in 2020, the facility will help gain MSU recognition as one of the main research facilities for nuclear physics.
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