THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100425
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Physicist Joseph Bisognano can't remember exactly whether or not there was any cheering. But sometime close to midnight, there were handshakes and backslapping all around for the half dozen or so weary scientists and technicians gathered in the futuristic control room of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility.
The nuclear physics research lab, known as CEBAF, reached a milestone early Tuesday, capping nearly 20 years of painstaking planning and construction. A hair-thin beam of electrons sped without interruption around the underground race-tracklike accelerator that lies at the heart of the facility.
By 4 a.m., the beam had been brought up to, and maintained, at full operational power.
``The champagne didn't come out until this morning,'' Bisognano said Tuesday. ``It was sort of like a team scoring a touchdown. We were very close to jumping up and down.''
The success means that researchers from all over the world will be able to come to Newport News to conduct full-scale physics experiments. Their goal will be nothing less than to gain a complete understanding of how nature's basic forces bind together all matter.
In the past, basic physics research has eventually led to practical applications. Physics investigations in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, for example, resulted in such consumer devices as the television, personal computer and compact disc player. Also made possible were new types of medical diagnostic machines, such as CT scanners and MRIs, or magnetic resonance imagers.
While there's no guarantee that physics research will have immediate impact, technology derived from the Peninsula accelerator's construction could lead to several marketable spinoffs. One of the most promising is a so-called free-electron laser that should drastically reduce manufacturing costs of textiles, plastics and computer equipment.
CEBAF, a $600 million, 200-acre complex off Jefferson Avenue, is owned by the U.S. Deptartment of Energy and managed by the 41-member Southeastern Universities Research Association. Twelve of the Association's members are in Virginia, and include Old Dominion University, Hampton University, Christopher Newport University and the College of William and Mary.
University of Virginia physicist James McCarthy is credited with proposing the idea for a CEBAF-like facility in 1976. An initial design was developed in 1980, and in 1983 Newport News was selected as the site. Construction began in 1987.
Although the accelerator portion of the facility is now running, more work must be done to complete two other areas where researchers will conduct their experiments.
The breakthrough early Tuesday almost didn't happen. Researchers were puzzled by repeated beam interruptions. Using sophisticated computer-controlled troubleshooting equipment, they pinpointed a small obstruction in a portion of one of the 3-inch-diameter stainless steel pipes through which the beam passes.
Steering magnets were then employed to guide the beam around the obstacle. Today, technicians will uncouple the pipe and make repairs.
Leigh Harwood, one of CEBAF's senior scientists, was awakened from a deep sleep in his Grafton home at 4 a.m. with the news that the accelerator's electron beam was operating at full power. Because of the push to get the beam up and running, Harwood said he hadn't gotten much sleep two nights running.
But this was one interruption that he relished.
``I'm absolutely ecstatic. It was all I could hope for,'' Harwood said. ``For us, it's a major milestone. We've demonstrated the machine works.'' by CNB