Research Facilities

Materials Science and Technology Laboratory

Director: Ronald Ballinger

Research programs in our Materials Science and Technology Laboratory place a priority on integrating experimental and analytical (modeling) to solve complex materials and engineering problems. Environmental degradation of materials is often the life limiting factor for engineering components. Thus, improving performance and developing insight with respect to fundamental behavior often results in an extension of the performance envelope for materials– and hence components. Our programs are focused in three general areas: (1) Environmental degradation of materials, (2) Development of advanced materials for fusion applications, and (3) Development of materials for advanced reactor systems.

The laboratory is a fully equipped corrosion science and mechanical properties laboratory. Located in a renovated facility in Building NW22, the laboratory occupies approximately 20,000 square feet and includes: (1) a complete chemistry laboratory, (2) complete facilities for optical metallography, (3) facilities for electrochemical studies, (4) complete mechanical testing facilities, and (5) complete computer facilities.

Additionally, the laboratory has a scanning electron microscope laboratory which includes X-ray microanalysis and image analysis capability. Programs involve basic studies concerning the environmental degradation of all materials. The laboratory is equipped for electrochemical measurements in aqueous systems at temperatures from room temperature to 350°C. Mechanical behavior testing can be conducted in all environments. Corrosion fatigue, stress corrosion cracking, hydrogen embrittlement, pitting, and other corrosion-related tests are easily accomplished. The laboratory is fully equipped for the study of tensile, fatigue, creep, and environmentally-enhanced materials degradation behavior. Test temperature capability is from 269° to 1500°C. Tensile, fatigue, fracture toughness (KIC-JIC-COD-based) tests can be conducted at temperatures as low as -269°C to 1500°C.

Scanning Electron Microscopy Facility

Director: Ronald Ballinger

The scanning electron microscope facility consists of a TOPCON ABT-150S dual stage, five lens, high-resolution microscope with normal (secondary electron) back scatter, and STEM capability. X-ray microanalysis capability is provided by a NORAN Voyager X-ray/image analysis system. The system has a resolution of 30 angstroms.

MIT Reactor

Director: David Moncton

The MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory is an interdepartmental center that operates a 5 MW research reactor in support of MIT's educational and research missions. The reactor, which is designated as the MITR, is a heavy-water reflected, light-water cooled and moderated nuclear reactor that utilizes flat, plate-type finned, aluminum-clad fuel elements. The average core power density is about 70 kW per liter. The maximum thermal neutron flux available to experimenters is 5 x 10¹³neutrons cm²/s. The MITR is equipped with many experimental facilities, including beam ports for neutron scattering, irradiation tubes for neutron activation analysis, a medical therapy facility for the evaluation of cancer treatment modalities, and in-core assemblies for the study of materials damage effects.

Spatial Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory

Director: David Cory

Research focus at the spatial Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) lab focuses on advancing the state of the art in magnetic resonance methods. We approach this in a manner that might be termed Magnetic Resonance Engineering. The individual projects are problem focused, but with a significant engineering component up front, and hopefully a large payoff when they succeed. The engineering developments permit us to maintain close ties to industry, and many of our advances have been commercialized. Engineering developments are naturally instrumentation and resource intensive, so we have established a state-of- the-art magnetic resonance laboratory within the Francis Bitter Magnet Laboratory. The laboratory contains ten NMR spectrometers, with fields ranging from 0.23 - 14.1 T and with bores up to 40 cm. The laboratory is well equipped to design, build and maintain the systems. Most importantly, it is unique in many of its capabilities, including radio frequency gradients, 2-D diffusive scattering, high resolution NMR microscopy, atomic resolution scattering, gradient-based MAS probes, and ensemble quantum computing.

NMR methods are some of the most promising nondestructive approaches to the simultaneous study of the spatial distribution and the chemical composition of small features in amorphous materials. The tremendous success of medical imaging speaks for itself, and points to a rich field of imaging and of other spatial NMR techniques applicable to biomedical and other materials. Indeed, the range of possibilities for non in-vivo spatial NMR go far beyond their medical counterparts, since in these studies researchers are unencumbered by restrictions on sample treatment, experiment length, field strength, RF power, and gradient switching times. Within the Spatial Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Laboratory the full gamut of spatial NMR techniques can be undertaken in one setting. A part of the culture of the laboratory is the development of new instrumentation, methods, and applications.

Boron Neutron Capture Therapy Laboratory

Director: Otto Harling

The Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) Project, a joint Nuclear Reactor Laboratory/Nuclear Science and Engineering Department (NS&E) project, makes use of a number of research laboratories and offices in spaces controlled by the NRL and the NS&E. An important part of these laboratories is the BNCT lab, which provides the focal point for NS&E students who are working on BNCT to develop electronic and mechanical equipment and to work with chemicals, e.g., in the design and construction of dosimetry phantoms. The chemical benches and the laboratory hood are particularly important for the execution of this work. This lab also provides a centralized location for materials, supplies, and equipment needed in student research for the BNCT project. Another important laboratory for this project is the medical irradiation room at the MIT Research Reactor. This facility includes a shielded irradiation room directly below the core of the reactor. Electronic systems measure the dose to the subjects or experiments that are placed in the available epithermal or thermal beams. This facility is being used for human clinical trials and for animal experiments.

Alcator C-Mod

Project Head: Earl Marmar

Co-Principal: Ian Hutchinson

The Alcator C-Mod tokamak is a national facility for fusion research, studying the magnetic confinement, heating, and stability of reactor- grade plasmas. The experiment utilizes the highest magnetic field of any major plasma confinement device, providing very high performance in a compact configuration. In this respect it is prototypical of possible compact fusion ignition experiments. A wide range of diagnostic experiments allows detailed plasma physics behavior to be measured. The present research emphasis is on understanding and controlling the turbulence that gives rise to energy and particle losses, and on the utilization of RF waves for plasma heating and control. A high power microwave system is under construction for controlling the plasma stability and transport. The corresponding future research emphasis will be on demonstrating quasi-steady-state advanced tokamak performance.

High Heat Flux Facility

Director: Mujid Kazimi

The High Heat Flux Facility provides the means to study the thermal hydraulics and limitations on heat removal in water-cooled components under highly sub-cooled conditions. This facility is capable of delivering up to 40 kW in heating to the test section. It is equipped with a 16-stage centrifugal pump with 40 gpm maximum capacity, water-demineralizing system, and two 500 gallon water storage tanks. Experiments will emulate heat flux and coolant flow conditions in several nuclear systems, including those of the plasma-facing components in fusion reactors, target conditions for compact accelerators that produce intense neutron sources, and high-flux nuclear fission test reactors. Water flow conditions are generally at pressures up to 3.5 MPa and velocities up to 25 m/s. Nuclear boiling and critical heat flux conditions in components with heat fluxes in the range 10 to 20 MW/sq m squared have been investigated.

Photon Correlation Spectroscopy Laboratory

Director: Richard Lanza

The Photon Correlation Spectroscopy Laboratory is a dark room equipped with an air-cushioned optical table, helium neon and argon lasers, sample cell holders with associated single-photon detector and optics, digital correlator (Brookhaven 120 channel correlator), and digital counting electronics. It is available for studying slow-time varying phenomena in liquid media in the range of microsecond to second.

Radio Frequency Quadrupole Accelerator Laboratory

Director: Richard Lanza

As part of a research grant from the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center, an accelerator-based neutron source has been developed to provide a compact, transportable source of neutrons. The accelerator is an AccSys DL-1 which uses the reaction Be(d,n)B at 0.9 MeV to produce neutrons. The machine is pulsed with a typical duty factor of 2 percent and a peak current of 7 mA. The pulsed output is particularly useful for applications using thermal neutrons, as well as for studies of cold neutrons. During the initial installation it was determined that the spectrum predicted using the Monte Carlo transport code MCNP was incorrect due to errors in the cross-sections reported in the literature. Based on a combination of improved cross-section data and on experimental data obtained using this accelerator at Livermore, researchers have seen a substantial enhancement in the neutron spectrum below 1 MeV. This enhancement can be explained through detailed examination of the energy levels in the intermediate compound nucleus. As part of the development of accelerator based neutron sources, a differentially pumped windowless gas target is under construction. The motivation for this development is the possibility of intense neutron sources using the deuterium-deuterium reaction at lower energies but with high (> 1 A) current. The facility has several CAMAC based data acquisition systems appropriate for multichannel data acquisition.components.

Tomography Laboratory

Director: Richard Lanza

The Tomography Laboratory is concerned largely with the use of three-dimensional imaging for nonmedical applications. The technique has centered around the use of thermal neutrons for producing tomographic images for material As part of a research grant from the Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center, an accelerator-based neutron source has been developed to provide a compact, transportable source of neutrons. The accelerator is an AccSys DL-1 which uses the reaction Be(d,n)B at 0.9 evaluation, e.g., components of aircraft and for power reactors. Other equipment includes a Silicon Graphics 4D/210GTX workstation, as well as PC and Macintosh-based data acquisition and control systems. Cooled Charged Couple Device cameras are used to acquire images for both planar and tomographic imaging of neutrons. The technique has proved its ability to detect corrosion in aircraft aluminum structures, and has detected hydrogen embrittlement in both stainless steel and in alloys such as titanium-vanadium used in aircraft turbine blades. The noninvasive and nondestructive nature of the technique, when combined with visualization techniques from medical imaging, will provide a powerful tool for detection of defects, as well as for lifetime prediction. Other areas being investigated include composites and applications of neutron diffraction to residual stress measurements in the interior of large components.

Lab for Accelerator Beam Applications

Director: Jaquelyn Yanch

The MIT Laboratory for Accelerator Beam Applications (LABA) is dedicated to developing and investigating uses of accelerator-produced particle beams for medical applications and biological investigations.

LABA houses a unique, high-current tandem electrostatic accelerator capable of generating proton, deuteron beams or alpha particle beams. Neutron beams are produced by proton or deuteron bombardment of various target materials. Installation of a switching magnet has made available five separate beamlines on which various long-term or short-term experiments are set up. A new proton microprobe has recently been installed on the 1.5 MeV single-ended electrostatic accelerator. The scanning microprobe will be capable of delivering nanoamperes of proton current in a 1 µm focal spot, and as such will be optimized for the ultrahigh resolution detection and mapping of trace element distributions in solid samples. This can be carried out using the techniques of proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), Rutherford backscattering, and nuclear reaction analysis. Example applications of this device include the investigation of submicron structures in semiconductors, trace element distributions on crystal grain boundaries in geological samples, and subcellular elemental distributions in tissue.

A dedicated end-station for irradiation of cells is under construction. In conjunction with the existing microprobe this end-station will allow the irradiation of cells with 1-2 µm resolution. In addition, irradiation of cells with predetermined numbers of particles will be possible. Once completed this device will be one of only three in the United States and one of only four in the world.