EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT

DATE: 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 26, 2015

EVENT: Tour the upgraded Michigan Ion Beam Laboratory. With the addition of a third accelerator, it is now the premier facility for conducting experiments on nuclear reactor materials with ion beams worldwide.

The accelerators shoot beams of ions, or charged particles, into materials to find out how well they would hold up inside a nuclear reactor. With three beams, the lab can mimic all types of radiation damage that occur inside a reactor. Hydrogen and helium beams build tiny cavities inside the material’s structure, similar to the hydrogen and helium that is produced in nuclear reactor materials due to radiation. The other beam knocks atoms out of place, emulating the long exposure radiation in a reactor.

The general public is invited to attend the open house.

PLACE: Room 120, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering Building, 2600 Draper Rd., Ann Arbor

INFORMATION: Kate McAlpine (kmca@umich.edu) is available to assist reporters with planning interviews.

UPGRADE SPONSORS: Department of Energy, TerraPower, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Electric Power Research Institute

More information:

• Michigan Ion Beam Lab
• Video: 3D “Walking Tour”