Outcomes of the Canadian roundtable on a national neutron strategy

Feb 3, 2021
The Canadian Neutron Initiative (CNI) has published a report summarising the outcomes of a roundtable meeting which brought together representatives of the Canadian scientific community at the end of 2020 in order to discuss key elements of a newly emerging national strategy for research with neutron beams.

There was a strong support among the participants for the creation of a national coordinating organisation, Neutrons Canada, which would manage all strategic activities on behalf of the user community and be responsible for long-range planning in line with the new strategy.

The participants also agreed that access to foreign neutron facilities is an urgent priority to address the present neutron beam shortage in the country. Canada’s primary neutron source, the NRU Reactor in Chalk River, closed down in 2018.

To read about other key areas of agreement and common themes of the roundtable discussion, see the report on outcomes here.

The event, which served as the basis for this report, took place virtually on 15-16 December 2020. It was organised by CNI and CIFAR, with support from BrightnESS² and the Fedoruk Centre.

  1. PHOTO: Front cover of Report on Outcomes of the CNI-CIFAR Roundtable on a National Neutron Strategy.