US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced some great news when he visited Brookhaven National Laboratory for the first time this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joining government and lab officials in Upton\u00a0on Monday, March 23, Dr. Chu confirmed that BNL will receive $184.3 million in federal stimulus money.\u00a0 Much of this funding, about $150 million, will be used to construct new buildings for BNL’s latest project, the $912 million National Synchrotron Light Source II, with\u00a0remaining monies\u00a0used for\u00a0other building upgrades and lab equipment.<\/p>\n
Upon completion, NSLSII will be the\u00a0most powerful\u00a0light source in the world, some ten thousand times brighter than NSLSI, which currently operates at BNL. According to Newsday and lab sources, NSLSII will produce high-intensity bright beams of X-rays, ultraviolet light and infrared light used for ultra-microscopic medical, energy and materials research.\u00a0 It can study objects one-billionth of a meter long.<\/p>\n
Potential applications for NSLSII research include helping to create materials that can split water with sunlight to produce hydrogen; help in the development of faster and cheaper electronics that consume less power; and help in harvesting solar energy at high efficiency and low cost.<\/p>\n
In very realistic terms, NSLSII will create jobs, possibly more than 1,000, with about 200 in the construction field\u00a0almost immediately, and about 400 technical and research positions remaining on site after completion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Construction for NSLSII will begin this spring, with perhaps some very high level government participation at the ground-breaking ceremony.\u00a0 Completion\u00a0is slated for 2015, but lab officials are optimistic that it may be finished earlier, perhaps by 2014, thanks in part to this funding.<\/p>\n
Dr. Chu’s visit and announcement\u00a0came just a few\u00a0days after the Middle Island Civic Association hosted BNL’s Marcia\u00a0Belford at its March meeting.\u00a0 Ms. Belford gave MICA members an excellent overview of the lab’s role in world reknowned\u00a0research as well as its colorful local history.\u00a0 Following\u00a0this presentation, several MICA members expressed interest in touring our important eastern neighbor,\u00a0 either on a BNL Summer Sunday visit or a MICA-sponsored\u00a0field trip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced some great news when he visited Brookhaven National Laboratory for the first time this week.\u00a0 Joining government and lab officials in Upton\u00a0on Monday, March 23, Dr. Chu confirmed that BNL will receive $184.3 million in federal stimulus money.\u00a0 Much of this funding, about $150 million, will be used to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/s453969799.onlinehome.us\/mica\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}