Page 88 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Neutrons for Science
4.2 The Future Users
Maier-Leibnitz and myself were responsible for discussions with other users. In particular this activity there was always close consultation with Louis Néel, whom Maier-Lebnitz visited at the start of 1965. The idea Maier-Lebnitz had for the Institut, and
to which I was in total agreement, was quite novel for that era. The aim was to create a pile and the beam instruments to be used primarily by visiting scientists coming from different laboratories in France and Germany. Often these visitors would not have previous experience of the use of neutrons. It was essential that the Institut had a team of researchers firstly to build instruments and then help visitors as a collaborator or “local contact”. Correspondingly it was necessary to involve the scientific community in the choice of instruments to build.
Instrument construction would begin at the same time as the reactor to ensure these would be ready at the start of operations. The community had to be consulted at the same time that the reactor design was being finalized. According to my records the first such meeting was held on 3 and 4 May 1965, well before
the formal establishment of the ILL, at Spitzingsee, a mountain resort about 65 km from Munich. Bertaut and Springer were present as researchers having experience in the use of neutrons, but in addition there were others new to the field of great scientific renown. I remember that on the French side were Jacques Friedel and André Guinier who had created the Solid State Physics laboratory at Orsay. In short it was a forerunner for what would later become the scientific council of the ILL. The wide variety
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