Over ten years ago, U.S. nuclear scientists proposed construction of a new rare isotope accelerator in the United States, which would enable experiments to elucidate the important questions in nuclear physics. To help assess this proposal, DOE and NSF asked the NRC to define the science agenda for a next-generation U.S. Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). As the study began, DOE announced a substantial reduction in the scope of this facility and put off its initial operation date by several years. The study focused on an evaluation of the science that could be accomplished on a facility reduced in scope. This report provides a discussion of the key science drivers for a FRIB, an assessment of existing domestic and international rare isotope beams, an assessment of the current U.S. position about the FRIB, and a set of findings and conclusions about the scientific and policy context for such a facility.

"This document describes the science motivation and technical plans for upgrading the rare isotope research capability at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) by replacing its Coupled Cyclotron Facility (CCF) with a more powerful facility [to be built on the campus of Michigan State University]--the Isotope Science Facility (ISF). The ISF will provide the nuclear science research community with significantly increased intensities and varieties of world-class beams of rare isotopes [that is, short-lived nuclei not normally found on Earth, that will will enable scientists to make discoveries about the properties of these rare isotopes in order to better understand the physics of nuclei, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental interactions, and applications for society.] It will take full advantage of the in-flight production technique's short beam development and fast isotope separation times and provide maximum flexibility to experimenters to choose the most appropriate approach to each problem."--From executive summary.

The Rare Isotope Science Assessment Committee (RISAC) was convened by the National Research Council in response to an informal request from the DOE's Office of Nuclear Physics and the White House Office of Management and Budget. The charge to the committee is to examine and assess the broader scientific and international contexts of a U.S.-based rare-isotope facility. The committee met for the first time on December 16-17, 2005, in Washington, DC, and held three subsequent meetings. The committee's final report was publicly released in unedited, prepublication form on Friday, December 8, 2006. The report was published in full-color by the National Academies Press in April 2007. Copies of the report were distributed to key decision makers and stakeholders around the world.

In a scientific keynote address on Friday, June 12 at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, James Symons, Director of Berkeley Labs Nuclear Science Division (NSD), discussed the exciting research prospects of the new Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) to be built at MSUs National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Rare isotopes are nature's stepping stones to produce the heavy elements, and they are produced in large quantities in stellar explosions. Despite their fleeting existence, they shape the composition of the universe and the observable features of stellar explosions. The challenge for nuclear science is to produce and study the very same rare isotopes so as to understand the origin of the elements and a range of astronomical observations. I will review the progress that has been made to date in astronomy and nuclear physics, and the prospects of finally addressing many of the outstanding issues with the future Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), which DOE will build at Michigan State University.

The envisioned Rare-Isotope Accelerator (RIA) facility would add substantially to research opportunities for nuclear physics and astrophysics by combining increased intensities with a greatly expanded variety of high-quality rare-isotope beams. A flexible superconducting driver linac would provide 100 kW, 400 MeV/nucleon beams of any stable isotope from hydrogen to uranium onto production targets. Combinations of projectile fragmentation, target fragmentation, fission, and spallation would produce the needed broad assortment of short-lived secondary beams. This paper describes the project's background, purpose, and status, the envisioned facility, and the key subsystem, the driver linac. RIA's scientific purposes are to advance current theoretical models, reveal new manifestations of nuclear behavior, and probe the limits of nuclear existence [3]. Figures 1 and 2 show, respectively, examples of RIA research opportunities and the yields projected for pursuing them. Figure 3 outlines a conceptual approach for delivering the needed beams.