274 



Oak Ridge, TN., U.S.A. 



CALUTRONS ELECTROMAGNETIC ISOTOPE SEPARATIONS FACILITY 

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) 

 U.S. Dept. of Energy 



"Big Science" Descriptor : Physics 



Description of Facility/Instrument : This facility provides very high 

 current mass separations. Feed material is vaporized, ionized, 

 electromagnetically accelerated, and magnetically focused to 

 impinge on a target. Isotopes of a given mass collect separately 

 from those of another mass. Runs are from 50 to hundreds of 

 hours. 



Date of Construction ; 19A4 



Construction Cost ; Original ; $110 million (see note 1 below). 



1984 $$ : $200 million (see note 2 below). 



Present International Cooperation 



Nationality(s) of Ownership : U.S. 

 Nationality(s) of Operational Funding : U.S. 

 Nationality(s) of Management Staff : U.S. 

 Nationality(s) of Researchers : U.S. 



Other Information : The calutrons provide the only U.S. means of pro- 

 ducing separated stable isotopes critically needed for research 

 in the physical sciences and as precursors to produce short-lived 

 radioisotopes used for nuclear medicine. These isotopes are sold 

 internationally for research, medical, and industrial applications. 



Note 1. The 1944 construction project produced 1156 separators 



at a cost of about $2 billion. The 1984 facility has 63 

 separators or about one percent of the original. 



Note 2. This estimated figure was not obtained by applying 40 



years of escalating costs to the 1944 number. It is the 

 result of a 1984 analysis by calutron staff. 



