Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory ( RAL ) is a research center of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council ( STFC ) at Chilton near Didcot in Oxfordshire.
It is named after Ernest Rutherford and Edward Victor Appleton, and was founded in 1957 as the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory of the National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science ( NIRNS ) to take over the 50 - MeV linear accelerator for protons, previously the adjacent Harwell research center of Atomic Energy research Establishment ( AERE ) belonged. Also, the RAL is located on the site of today Harwell Science and Innovation Campus between Harwell and Chilton (originally on an old airfield of the Royal Air Force ). Between 1964 and 1978, the 7- GeV Proton Synchrotron Nimrod was operated by RAL. Parts of it are now used in the ISIS spallation neutron source of RAL as part of the proton linear accelerator, with which the neutron and muon source are generated. ISIS has existed since 1985.
The RAL has a permanent staff of around 1,200 people (2011 ), but work on the projects of the laboratory approximately 10,000 scientists and engineers from various universities.
In the laboratory, the Atlas Computer Laboratory in 1975 went to the nearby Harwell and 1979 the neighboring Appleton Laboratory, after which the laboratory has been appointed by both Rutherford and Appleton. Also part of the 1998 Royal Greenwich Observatory moved here as well as the laser division of the Joint European Torus at Culham, which formed the basis of the Central Laser Facility of the RAL. To this also the Vulcan laser, amongst others, for inertial confinement fusion experiments are undertaken heard. In addition, opened in 2007, Diamond Light Source synchrotron radiation source is part of the RAL.
RAL is involved in several international projects for Particle Physics ( but not directly at the LHC at CERN, where the British participation is regulated differently ) and also in space projects ( construction and testing of satellite components). Attached are data centers with grid computing.