Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics

The Nuclear Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics portfolio supports high-impact science with proton-rich and neutron-rich nuclei as well as nuclear processes that inform our understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis, neutron stars, and Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Two NP National User Facilities are pivotal in making progress in these frontiers. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is the newest user facility in the Office of Science and started operations in May 2022 to advance the understanding of rare nuclear isotopes and the evolution of the cosmos. The Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) is used to study questions of nuclear structure by providing high-quality beams of all the stable elements up to uranium and selected beams of short-lived nuclei for experimental studies of nuclear properties under extreme conditions and reactions of interest to nuclear astrophysics. The portfolio supports a broad range of university-based scope, including operations at the Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) and the Texas A&M University Cyclotron Institute. The program also partners with other federal agencies to support limited operations of the 88-Inch Cyclotron at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) for basic research and to meet national security needs.