Page 217 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

The construction is a joint enterprise proposed by the five
most important national laboratories working in the nuclear field (Oak Ridge, Argonne, Brookhaven, Los Alamos and Lawrence Berkeley). Thanks to cooperation the Europeans have been ahead in the field. Unless these international collaborations have a priority compared to national projects this leadership will be lost. It is perhaps useful to recall that Airbus Industrie, whose technical and commercial successes are known to all was created as a Franco-German cooperation in May 1969, two years after the ILL. The Franco-German pairing clearly works well.
10.2 The scientific record
In this text I have tried to tell the story of an institute whose beginnings date back more than forty years. This is not an unusually long time for a normal scientific institution – the Institut Pasteur is over a hundred years old. However the existence of
the ILL is based on a single facility, and if this facility were to be closed down it would have no future whatsoever. This explains the care, effort and budget needed to maintain it. These investments are only justified if the scientific rewards are satisfactory. I will
try and make this assessment with certain examples since I do not feel competent to comment in all areas of research using neutron beams.
Study of the neutron as a fundamental particle has been especially fruitful. A recent experiment conducted at the ILL shows well what can be done with neutrons. The aim was to
208
Conclusion - An appraisal