The US Department of Energy has selected Michigan
State University in East Lansing, Michigan to design and establish
the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a cutting-edge research
facility to advance understanding of rare nuclear isotopes and
the evolution of the cosmos. The new facility—expected to take
about a decade to design and build, and to cost an estimated $550
million—will provide research opportunities for an international
community of approximately 1000 university and laboratory scientists,
postdoctoral associates, and graduate students.
Unstable (or rare) isotopes play a critical role
for some of the most compelling open questions in nuclear astrophysics.
Many of these questions JINA has begun to address with the limited
rare isotope production capabilities available today. With FRIB
most of the nuclear physics in stellar explosions becomes finally
accessible to experiments on earth. JINA plays an active role
in shaping the scientific community that will ultimately take
advantage of FRIB by bridging the gap between nuclear physics
and astrophysics, by advancing the science, and by educating the
future leaders of the field. JINA, in collaboration with other
groups, is also developing new experimental equipment that will
initially be used at existing rare isotope facilities but is intended
to enable FRIB experiments in the future.
