Page 56 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Neutrons for Science
CNRS outside Paris, and was located in the Joseph Fourier Institute, which it shared with mathematicians, and which at
that time was partially empty. In 1943 Félix Bertaut joined the laboratory to create a group for X-ray crystallography. Later, in 1956, the CEA created the Centre d’Etudes Nucléaires (CENG) in Grenoble for Néel. Two reasons motivated him; the first was his desire to create a nuclear engineering section at the Institut Polytechnique he directed. The second was the need to provide
a source of neutrons for Bertaut. The former polygon artillery range, two kilometres from the centre of Grenoble, had long been abandoned. After lengthy negotiations the army agreed to sell
80 hectares (about 200 acres). This terrain was much larger than needed by the CEA, but much later could be proposed as a site for the construction of the ILL, and later still for the ESRF. The idea of creating a nuclear engineering faculty in an engineering school was new and shows Néel’s interests were still in nuclear reactors and the energy they could produce.
The regular contacts46 between Néel and Maier-Leibnitz within the office of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) were important in the creation of the ILL. Once the ILL was created, the CENG offered a maximum of aid to the newcomer.
Louis Néel was a kind of enlightened scientific monarch, director of all, or nearly all the scientific laboratories in the town. His deeds definitely led to the spectacular development
of Grenoble. He strove to establish links between the CEA, the CNRS and the university laboratories. He also fostered relations
46 Iwasunabletofindeitherwhereorwhenthetwometforthefirsttime.Evidencefromtheirmemoirsiscontra- dictory.
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