Page 11 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Introduction - Why write a history of the ILL?
current times where there is increased scepticism over the future of Europe I feel it is of use to show how this collaboration has progressively become European-wide (there are now 10 countries involved and this number is increasing). The driving force has been the success achieved together being far better than any country could have obtained alone.
This book will attempt to show that the ILL has allowed Europe to surpass the USA in an important field of research thanks to a specific tool – a research reactor with a uniquely high continuous neutron flux – which even today is unequalled in the world. It is important to understand what led up to this success.
The prehistory of the ILL goes back more than 40 years [2018 addition: with this edition the period in question is now over 50 years]. Thus many contributors to this slow gestation which led to the construction of the Institut and its reactor are no longer alive. There remain those (notably the author) who, though all in retirement, can still harvest the evidence, though this needs to be done quickly to include in a complete history. However, this book is the work of a scientist who has no training as a historian, and who has learnt of the difficulties of this metier. The path of truth is as important in history as in physics, and calls for use of all available methods. One learns the need to recover the evidence, which is not always possible when the witnesses become sparse. The work was further complicated by the absence of archives
at the ILL (and at the CENG, the Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires de Grenoble). There isn’t even a complete collection of ILL activity reports. Happily my own personal archives remained, some being rediscovered in a cupboard at the ILL. Hence this
2