Page 168 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Neutrons for Science
negotiations with the SRC, whose delegation was led by Sir Brian Flowers. Three meetings were held in 1971 (12 July, 28 October and 14 December).
On 25 October the French Ministry for Industrial and Scientific Development expressed in writing its veto on British participation at 10%. The reason given was that this percentage would not be sufficient for the needs of the British, given the scientific activity in the UK and especially in the field of research using neutron beams. Note that the Financial Times had published an article
on 30 September 1971 that a decision by the government on financing the reactor was imminent. The year 1971 thus ended
in a state of total confusion with the ILL (or more precisely
the Associates) insisting on fully shared membership with the SRC (and working towards easing and improving the financial conditions for this), and the SRC continuing to fight for its own reactor. This situation is described in a telex (included here in appendix 4) from Flowers to Creyssel, then president of the Steering Committee, on 23 or 24 January 1972.
There was nothing new in the negotiations during the first half of 1972. There was a meeting between the ILL and SRC on 27 June in Grenoble, where again nothing was recorded, but Horowitz did note that the meeting had taken place in an excellent atmosphere, which certainly had not always been the case in the past. Two explanations for this change may be given. The first is that, at
the start of the meeting, Mössbauer, now Director of the ILL, announced the successful start-up of the hot and cold sources. This demonstrated the successful construction of a reactor now fully operational. The second is that Flowers was probably aware of the decision of the government to authorise opening
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