Newsletter From AONSAThe Asia-Oceania Neutron Scattering Association

Volume 5, No. 1 (August, 2013)

Co-chairs of ICNS2013, Profs. Keith McEwen (2nd from right) and Paul Attfield (left end),
together with AONSA colleagues after the Closing Ceremony.

Index

President’s Message………………………………P.1
Report on 10th EC Meeting………………………P.2~3
6th Neutron School in Japan Tokai Canceled……..P.4
Event’s Report …………………………………P.5~9
・AONSA Prize
・AONSA Regional Meeting・Three President Meeting
・Korea-Japan Meeting on Neutron Science
・The 5th Taiwan-Japan Joint Meeting on
Neutron and X-ray Scattering,Society Report ………………………………P.10~14
・ANBUG・JSNS・NSSI・TWNSS
Facility Report ………………………………P.15~17
Report from AONSA Office………………………P.18
Calendar…………………………………………...P.19

The next venue of ICNS is traditionallydecided by the International Facility Directors Meeting
held during the present ICNS. This time Prof. Robert
McGreevy (ISIS) has hosted and chaired it at the
Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC; theConference venue) on July 8 where the last agenda wason the next venue of ICNS2017. Since AONSA wasestablished about 5 years ago, it has been our
unanimous agreement to make our best effort to invite
ICNS2017 in the Asia-Oceania Region and tonominate Korea once our Region would be selected by
IFDM. Such a consensus is based on the fact that
Korean neutron scattering community (KNBUA) andfacility (HANARO/KEARI) have been powerfulenough to host it, and previously Japan and Australia
hosted it in 1985 (Hakone), 1994 (Sendai) and 2005
(Sydney).

President’s message

By Prof. Yasuhiko FUJII(JSNS, CROSS-Tokai)

The ICNS2017 at Daejeon in Korea !

At the present IFDM, therefore, Dr. Kye-Hong
Lee (HANARO, a member of IFDM) made his
excellently prepared presentation attractive enough for
all members to support his proposal.
Koreancolleagues made their coherent effort domestically andregionally to attract participants by opening the Koreanbooth at the EICC lobby (photo) and by formallydelivering his invitation by Prof. Kookheon Char
(SNU) at the Closing Ceremony on July 12.

The quadrennial International Conference on
Neutron Scattering in 2013 (ICNS2013) was
successfully held at Edinburgh in United Kingdom on
July 8-12. About 800 researchers and students from 34
countries/regions attended and enjoyed the Conference
excellently organized by Profs. Keith McEwen, Paul
Attfield (Co-chairs of Organizing Committee) and theircolleagues. In the scientific and social programs, theykindly paid special attention to the Asia-Oceania
Region by allocating time slots for the Regional
Meeting and the Award Ceremony/Lecture for
AONSA Prize 2013 as well as by preparing conference
rooms for our Executive Committee and Three
President Meetings.
Details of such events arereported separately in this issue.

It is really a great sign that the European andAmerican communities recognize that the AsiaOceania plays an equally significant role in promoting
neutron scattering science and technology worldwide.
Let’s all share Korea’s joy in hosting ICNS2017.

The best-positioned booth jointly prepared by KAERI and KNBUA at ICNS2013 to appeal for scientificand social attractiveness of the City of Daejeon as an ideal venue for the next ICNS in 2017.

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

1

Newsletter from AONSAEC Meeting
The 10th AONSA Executive Committee Meeting held in Edinburgh during ICNS2013
The 10th AONSA Executive Committee (EC)Meeting was held in Edinburgh International
Conference Center, Edinburgh, UK, on July 9, 2013
during the ICNS2013. The meeting was attended by
20 participants and started with an opening remark by
President Yasuhiko Fujii acknowledging the kindarrangement of the ICNS2013 organizers for thevenue of this EC meeting which is held outside of the
Asia-Oceania region for the first time. While themeeting schedule was very tight, all participants
enjoyed the meeting very much, discussing various
AONSA activities. The agenda included the recent
survey of neutron users in the Asia-Oceania region(2,500 users), procedures for obtaining the official
support of AONSA for an event, reports on the
AONSA budget, the AONSA Prize, the 6th AONSA
Neutron School at Tokai (which was cancelled due toan unfortunate accident at J-PARC), the AONSA
Neutron School to be held in Serpong, Indonesia nextyear, the 2nd AOCNS to be held in Manly, Australia

in 2015, the venue of ICNS2017 which it had justbeen officially announced will be held in Daejeon,
Korea, and the upgrade of AONSA Webpage. The
great efforts of all contributors to these AONSA
activities were highly appreciated by all the EC
participants. These were followed by very inspiring
presentations and fruitful discussions on the “NextStep” of AONSA activities including the AONSA
Visiting Fellows program. The supporting lettersfrom ENSA and NSSA for the recovery of JRR3, andthe great efforts to organize neutron scattering
sessions in APPC12 in Chiba, Japan were highly
appreciated. The EC meeting was followed by the
AONSA Regional Meeting. The minutes of themeeting will be posted in the AONSA homepage
once they have been finalized.
Sung-Min Choi
Secretary of AONSAThe 10th AONSA EC Meeting at the Edinburgh International Conference Center

Volume 5, Number 1, 20132

Newsletter from AONSANeutron School

Three AONSA Presidents Together (left: J.W. White, Y. Fujii and M.W. Kim) and AONSA Colleagues
during dinner (right: R. Robinson, M. Arai, K.H. Lee, H. Seto, C. Ling and Y. Liu)

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

3

Newsletter from AONSANeutron School
Report on the 6th AONSA Neutron School – Cancellation Notification
The 6th AONSA Neutron School was scheduled tobe held from Monday 17 – Friday 21, 2013, at JPARC/MLF, Tokai, Ibaraki, Japan. Unfortunately, it
had to be cancelled for the following reason. On 23
May, 2013, a radioactive contamination accident
occurred at the Hadron Experimental Facility of JPARC. The Hadron Experimental Facility is locatedvery near to and shares accelerator capabilities with
J-PARC MLF, the planned venue for the 6th AONSA
Neutron School. All the accelerators andexperimental facilities at J-PARC have been shut
down until further notice. J-PARC is currently
working closely with other JAEA and KEK staff andstakeholder organizations to determine the cause orcauses of this accident. It is unclear at this time when
operations at J-PARC will resume. In addition to theVolume 5, Number 1, 2013

severe limitations imposed by the facility shutdown,
the staff of the MLF are now engaged ininvestigating the circumstances surrounding theaccident and responding to the consequences. As aresult, we have concluded that for these reasons, itwould be impossible to hold the School as scheduled.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience,
disruption and disappointment that this decision willcause. Please note that we will make every effort tohold a School in the future. For future reference, thestatistics of the school and the poster of the school
are reported below.
Mitsuhiro Shibayama
Principal, 6th AONSA Neutron School

4

Newsletter from AONSAEvent Report
AONSA Prize 2013158 delegates from the Asia-Oceania region
attended the ICNS-2013 meeting in Edinburgh, UK,from 8–12 July, and were rewarded for their long
journeys by Scotland’s best weather in living
memory. In addition to the excellent scientific andtechnical program, AONSA delegates participated ina number of regionally specific events. The
undoubted highlight among these was the AONSAPrize ceremony, in which Prof BA Dasannacharya of
India was presented with the AONSA Medal and$5000 prize, and then himself presented a fascinating
talk on the history of neutron scattering in India, fromthe first criticality of the Apsa reactor in 1956
through close Indian involvement in the design andbuilding of the first beryllium filter spectrometer
IRIS at SNS (now ISIS) to the Dhruva reactor today.
Prof Dasannacharya emphasized the importance of
intra- and inter-regional cooperation to the future ofneutron scattering, as embodied in the fact that the
AONSA prize was being presented at ICNS, and way

in which his own students have gone on to startneutron scattering programs in Indonesia, thePhilippines, Thailand and other countries. ICNS was
also the venue for the 2013 AONSA Regional
Meeting, at which members were brought up-to-dateon the work and achievements of AONSA and took
the opportunity to question the Executive Committee
and Board about governance, finances, relationships
to its affiliating bodies and to ENSA/NSSA, andstrategy in pursuing its mission to promote neutron
scattering in our region and beyond. Finally, theclosing ceremony of ICNS was a great occasion for
AONSA with Korea being announced as the host for
its next edition in 2017. We are all excited by theopportunity and are confident that this meeting heldin our own region will be the best yet.
Chris Ling
Public Relations Officer of AONSAProf Yasuhiko Fujii (President of AONSA) presents the 2013 AONSA Prize to Prof BA Dasannacharya

Prof BA Dasannacharya is giving his Prize Lecture

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

5

Newsletter from AONSAEvent Report
Report on the AONSA Regional Meeting
ICNS was also the venue for the 2013 AONSARegional Meeting, at which members were brought upto-date on the work and achievements of AONSA andtook the opportunity to question the Executive
Committee and Board about governance, finances,
relationships to its affiliating bodies and to
ENSA/NSSA, and strategy in pursuing its mission topromote neutron scattering in our region and beyond.

Finally, the closing ceremony of ICNS was a great
occasion for AONSA with Korea being announced as
the host for its next edition in 2017. We are all excitedby the opportunity and are confident that this meeting
held in our own region will be the best yet.
Chris Ling
Public Relations Officer of AONSAAONSA delegates to ICNS-2013 after the AONSA Regional Meeting(about 87 attendees)

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

6

Newsletter from AONSAEvent Report
Report on the 12th Korea-Japan Meeting on Neutron Science
February 3-6, 2013
The 12th Korea-Japan Meeting on Neutron
Science, organized by J-PARC Center (JAEA/KEK)
and CROSS Tokai in collaboration with KAERI, washeld in Okinawa for the first time. The first KoreaJapan meeting was held in 2000 in Tsukuba, Japan,
and since then 11 meetings have been held bilaterally.
All the previous meetings were very successful andyielded fruitful discussions, which will help drive theconstruction of new neutron facilities and promote
neutron sciences in both countries. On this occasion,
23 Korean and 36 Japanese participants attended,discussed future collaborations and developed theirmutual friendship.
In the first session, Susumu Ikeda (KEK), whoorganized the first meeting 13 years ago, gave aplenary lecture entitled “Being and Non-being”.
After that, the present status of J-PARC, HANARO,
KURRI and JRR-3 were shown by representatives ofthese facilities. The following sessions were grouped
into 4 sessions; Instrumentation, Hard Matter, Soft
Matter, and Nano/Industry. These sessions covered
topics including structural analysis, inelastic

scattering instruments, multiferroic materials,
functional polymers, and new cathodes forlithium/sodium rechargeable batteries. Over lunch of
the first day, core members from Japan and Korea
held a business meeting to discuss the venue for the
next meeting, which it was decided will be held in
Baekje. Strategies to attract the next International
Conference on Neutron Scattering (ICNS2017) toKorea were also discussed.
Although it was early in February, spring has alreadycome to Okinawa. The participants saw cherry
blossoms and enjoyed warm weather, as well as local
cakes such as Chinsuko and Sata andagi. The
organizing committee members appreciated the great
efforts of the staff and students of the University of
Ryukus to prepare such a comfortable venue andsuch fine refreshments.
Hideki Seto (IMSS, KEK),
Chair of the Organizing Committee

Participants of the 12th K-J meeting gathered in front of the venue

Susumu Ikeda gave a plenary lecture

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

Sata andagi, sweet deep fried buns of dough native to Okinawa
prefectur

7

Newsletter from AONSAEvent Report
Report on the 5th Taiwan-Japan Joint Meeting on Neutron and X-ray Scattering
February 24-27, 2013
The first Taiwan-Japan joint meeting washeld in 2006 as the “Taiwan-Japan Workshop on
Neutron Scattering of Biomaterials and Soft-Matters
for Nanotechnology and Biotechnology”. Since then,a series of meetings have been held bilaterally almost
every year, and the 5th meeting was planned in
Tsukuba from March 22, 2011. Unfortunately, theoriginal plan had to be postponed due to theearthquake, and it took 2 years to find a suitable
alternative date for the key participants. The
organizing committee members were therefore very
happy to eventually hold this meeting in Tokai,
where the facilities were severely damaged by theearthquake. Over 30 participants attended theworkshop.

The main theme of the meeting was thecomplementary use of neutron and synchrotron X-ray
scattering for the study of bio-materials, softmaterials and nano-materials, and 30 talks were givenon this topic. The meeting was also a great
opportunity to confirm friendships among theparticipants from both countries. It was particularly
helpful that all the participants stayed in the same
hotel and ate all meals together. The next meeting
will be held in Taiwan early in 2014.
Hideki Seto (IMSS, KEK)
Chair of the Organizing Committee

Participants at the 5th T-J meeting.

Prof. Toshiji Kanaya delivers welcoming remarks over dinner.

Volume 5, Number 1, 20138

Newsletter from AONSAEvent Report
Report on the Three Presidents Meeting at ICNS-2013
Among other important meetings, bothformal and informal, that took place during
ICNS2013 in Edinburgh was the 3rd “three
Presidents meeting” involving the leaders of ENSA,NSSA and AONSA. Although NSSA President
Rosenkranz was unable to attend ICNS, he was ably
represented by Mark Lumsden and Chris Wiebe of
the NSSA Executive. The lunch meeting was hosted
by AONSA in recognition of the support andencouragement of ENSA and NSSA for Korea’s
successful bid to host the next ICNS in 2017. The
importance of mutual cooperation among societies
was discussed at length, noting that this has yielded
its first tangible results in the extraordinarily rapid
repair and restart of J-PARC and (shortly) the JRR-3
reactor following the great Fukushima earthquake of
2011. The importance of letters written to theJapanese government by NSSA and ENSA cannot be
underestimated and was greatly appreciated by
AONSA. Similarly, AONSA and NSSA committed

their full support to ENSA in the current critical stageof the ESS project as it seeks to confirm funding overthe next 6 months. Another important issue discussed
was the inclusion of the entire world’s neutron user
communities and their local user groups under theumbrella of the three Associations. In particular,
ENSA undertook to engage more closely with
African neutron users and NSSA to explore links
with South American user groups, while AONSA is
working to include more countries from its
geographical region such as Mongolia. The meeting
was highly productive on these and other issues, andis planned to be a regular event at all future ICNS
and intermediate (ECNS, ACNS and AOCNS)
meetings wherever possible.
Chris Ling
Public Relations Officer of AONSA(L–R, front) Chris Wiebe (Executive Committee, NSSA), Mark Lumsden (Communications Secretary, NSSA), Michael Steiner (Chaiman,
ENSA), Hartmut Abele (Secretary, ENSA), Javier Campo (Vice Chairman, ENSA); (L–R, back) Chris Ling (Public Relations Officer,
AONSA), Wen-Hsien Li (Vice President, AONSA), John White (Past President, AONSA), Yasuhiko Fujii (President, AONSA), Mahn Won
Kim (Chair of ICNS-2017), Sung-Min Choi (Secretary, AONSA)

Volume 5, Number 1, 20139

Newsletter from AONSASociety Report
Report from ANBUGApproximately 100 delegates attended the
AINSE-ANBUG Neutron Scattering Symposium(AANSS 2012) from November 7-9 2012, which
represents an excellent turnout in the face of a very
busy calendar of conferences in closely
related/overlapping research fields in the last 3
months of the year. This was a testament to thestrength of the community. At the meeting, theprestigious ANBUG Prize for 2012 was awarded toProf Ian Gentle of the University of Queensland forhis work on applied materials using neutronreflectometry. The results of elections for new
members of the ANBUG Executive Committee andfor the position of Vice President were alsoannounced. The President is now Prof Evan Gray(2013-14) and the Vice President, who will become
President in 2015 (the year of the 2nd AOCNS) willbe Prof Erich Kisi.
Unfortunately ANBUG’s efforts to renew
international travel funding for its members have so

far not been successful. A major grant application to
the Australian Research Council seeking funding to
replace the expired Access to Major Research
Facilities Program (AMRFP) from 2014-2018,
focused on access to spallation neutron sources (ISIS,
SNS and J-PARC), could not be submitted due to alast-minute ruling on its eligibility. The need for sucha program was reinforced by the fact that when the
AMRFP received some funds to reopen applications
in mid-2012, those funds were all committed within
one week. AINSE generously provided interim travel
funding exclusively for experiments approved at the
ISIS facility, but this expired at the end of 2012.
Efforts to find an alternative solution are ongoing.
The ANBUG website http://www.anbug.org has been
completely redesigned and updated.
Chris Ling,
ANBUG Past President

Report of the Japanese Society for Neutron Science (JSNS).
We held an election for the new President aswell as the council members of JSNS in December,
2012, and Prof. Kanaya (Institute for Chemical
Research, Kyoto Univ.) was again elected as the
President of JSNS for his second term, which has
started from April, 2013. Under his presidency thefollowing members of the new secretariat havealready started their activities. General affairs: Prof.
M. Sugiyama (Kyoto Univ.) and Prof. T. Sato
(Tohoku Univ.), Treasurer: Dr. Hase (NIMS) and Dr.
K. Kaneko (JAEA), Editor-in-chief: Prof. T. Masuda(Univ. Tokyo) and Dr. H. Kitazawa (NIMS), Public
relations: Dr. Y. Otake (RIKEN) and Dr. K. Kino
(Hokkaido Univ.), Exchange affairs: Dr. H. Nozaki(Toyota Central R&D Labs.) and Prof. K. Mori
(Kyoto Univ.), Event affairs: Dr. Y. Kawakita(JAEA) and Prof. H. Hiraga (KEK).

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

The 12th Annual Meeting of JSNS was held in Kyoto
University on 10-11 December, 2012. The chairman
and vice-chairman were Prof. T. Kanaya (Kyoto
Univ.) and Prof. H. Matsuoka (Kyoto Univ.) and thechairman of the program committee was Prof. M.
Sugiyama (Kyoto Univ.). In the meeting “industrial
application of neutrons” and “collaboration among
quantum beams” were the highlighted topics andthere were three opening talks given by Mr. K. Hara
(MEXT), Prof. J. Mizuki (President of the JapaneseSociety of Synchrotron Radiation Research) and Mr.
A. Sudo (Toshiba Co.). There was 1 plenary talk, 11
JSNS prize lectures (including 4 prize lectures in thelast year), 10 invited talks, 12 contributed talks, and
160 posters. About 190 participants enjoyed theseoral and poster presentations on new and exciting
results from J-PARC/MLF, JRR-3 and many otherfacilities and universities, and the exchange of
information. The banquet was held in Westin Miyako
Hotel Kyoto in the evening on the first day of themeeting.

10Newsletter from AONSASociety Report

Scese in a banquet

The JSNS Prize 2012 was awarded to Prof. Kenji
Suzuki (Professor emeritus of Tohoku University) for“Structure study on amorphous materials by neutron
scattering”. He started his scientific carrier at thepulse neutron source with 300 MeV electron linac
after his stay in Toronto University, and developed
his structure research on amorphous materials
including liquid metals, molten salts, oxide glasses
etc. He is a true pioneer in structural studies ofamorphous materials in Japan. Prof. Kazuhisa
Kakurai (JAEA) won the JSNS scientific Prize for“Studies on low dimensional and quantum spin
magnetic materials and utilization of polarized
neutron”. The JSNS young scientist Prize wasawarded to Dr. K. Sadakane (KEK) for “Orderedstructure of mixed solutions of water/organic
solvent/salt system by neutron scattering” and to Dr.
Y. Onodera for “Structure study on super ionic
conductors by neutron scattering”. The TechnicalPrize was awarded to Dr. K. Hoshikawa (JAEA) andhis group for the “Development of robot for

automatic sample change in iMATERI” and to Dr. Y.
Yasu (JAEA) and his group for the“Development of
DAQ middleware and its installation to neutron
experiments”. Professor Jun Akimitsu in Aoyama
Gaukin Univ. won the JSNS Special Prize for his“Search for superconductors, research on magnetic
materials by polarized neutron diffraction andcontribution to neutron science”. His wide activities
not only in neutron science but also in social
contributions through education were highly regarded
by various scientific societies and he has alreadyreceived many prestigious awards.
During the annual meeting the seminar for industrial
applications of neutron was held in the same venue
and 4 talks were given from industrial side. In
addition, a special room was prepared by JSNS forneutron experts to give advices to neutron novices,
especially from industry, on scientific as well as
technical issues. About 40 persons or groups visited
this room to discuss their own issues.

Audience in the seminar for industrial application of neutron

Volume 5, Number 1, 201311

Newsletter from AONSASociety ReportSociety Report
On the day before the annual meeting, the 2nd open
symposium on neutron science and applications forstudents and residents of the Kyoto area was held at thesame place. About 80 people attended the meeting.
Three lectures were given in the symposium. Prof.
Kanaya in Kyoto Univ. talked about “Polymer fiber
stronger than steel” and Dr. Suzuki from J-PARC gave
an introduction of neutron science and its application
using many interesting cartoons. Prof. Yamamoto in

Tsukuba Univ. introduced recent developments on“Cancer Therapy by Neutron Radiation”.
T. Kanaya
President of JSNS
M. Sugiyama
General affair of JSNS

Neutron Scattering Society of India
The 2nd International Symposium on
Neutron Scattering (ISNS 2013) was held at
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC),
Mumbai, India, during January 14-17, 2013. The
first one had been held in January 2008. The
ISNS 2013 was sponsored by Board of Researchin Nuclear Sciences, India, and was organized by
BARC Mumbai in association with Neutron
Scattering Society of India. The symposium
covered all aspects of neutron scattering
including facilities, instruments, science andapplications. Particular emphasis was on
application of neutrons towards food, energy andbiological science.

invited talks were based on recommendations by
the international advisory committee members.
Poster sessions were very intense with lots ofdiscussion. The young researchers were very
enthusiastic to present their work with wellmade posters. There were 87 papers put up as
posters, distributed on two days.
Researchers from various universities and otheracademic institutions utilize the National Facility
for Neutron Beam Research at BARC regularly.
This international symposium enabled very
useful scientific discussions among the national
and international researchers.

For ISNS 2013 there were more than 200
participants from 14 countries including several
leading experts from laboratories in Australia,
Bangladesh, Belgium, France, Germany, Japan,
Korea, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK,
USA, and others.

Lively discussions were pursued at theconference banquet organized at a hotel in Navi
Mumbai. Participants also witnessed aspectacular dance performance based on Indianclassical ballet. A visit was organized to theneutron scattering facility at the Dhruva reactor.

There were 50 invited talks, 18 oralpresentations and 87 poster presentations. Within
the invited talks 13 facility reports were in theplenary session. The facility reports covered
almost all present day mega-facilities like, ILL,
ISIS facility, J-PARC, ORNL, FRM II, PSI,LLB, JINR, ANSTO, JCNS, KAERI, and BARC.
The upcoming facility ESS, was also presented.
There were 37 invited talks in parallel sessions,covering the wide range of science being
pursued all over the world which includes newexperimental facilities, and studies involving
diffraction, magnetism, biological systems,
hydrogen and diffusion, dynamics, neutron
optics, small angle scattering, reflectometry, andother applications, The choice of topics forVolume 5, Number 1, 2013

Overall it was a very successful symposium held
after 2008 and people expressed their happinessfor the well organized symposium both from theacademic and social aspects.

Participants engrossed in discussion during the poster session

12

Newsletter from AONSA

Report from AONSA OfficeGroup photograph of ISNS 2013

Beam Research (NFNBR) were utilized for theexperimental sessions. On the last day of theschool, tutorials on neutron diffraction data
analysis and small angle neutron scattering(SANS) data analysis were conducted.

A pre-symposium school on “Neutron as Probesof Condensed Matter” was also organized for the
researchers at the national level during January
4-12, 2013, which included hands-on
experiments along with the theory classes. There
was an overwhelming response for the school;out of 130 applicants about 60 were selected, of
which 20 were faculty members and 40 wereresearch students from universities and research
institutions.
The school comprised three days oflectures/tutorials and two days of experiments at
Dhruva reactor, BARC. Eleven lectures coveringvarious aspects of neutron scattering weredelivered by invited speakers on the first twodays of the school. All participants were taken to
BARC during the next two days for experimental
sessions at Dhruva reactor. Participants weredivided into 10 groups, and each group
participated in two experiments over these twodays. All the neutron scattering instruments
available under the National Facility for Neutron

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

Photograph of the participants at the school

Samrath Chaplot andRamaprosad Mukhopadhyay
BARC, Mumbai, India

13

Newsletter from AONSASociety ReportSociety ReportNews from Taiwan Neutron Science Society (TWNSS)
Promoting interests in Neutron by TWNSSWith the ongoing efforts to promote interest in neutron
research in Taiwan, the number of our members
reached 388 this year. Of TWNSS members, 78% are
students and research assistants. Principal research
investigators are about 16%. The other 4% are
postdoctoral fellows. The joint efforts of TWNSS andNSRRC have provided the Taiwanese researchcommunity with the best neutron access andopportunities. Twenty-five international neutron
research proposals in the last half of 2013 have been
approved. Among these, ANSTO in Australia and
NIST/ORNL in USA were the most popularly chosen
research locations. With efforts to push international
collaboration to a higher level and attract new usergroups by introducing interesting topics in various
workshops, we believe the neutron research in Taiwan
now has a vibrant momentum.

The operational responsibility of new SIKA coldneutron 3-axis spectrometer at OPAL reactor of
ANSTO was officially transferred to the new NSRRC
office at ANSTO on May 2nd. SIKA has been
constructed by the team from National Central
University, under the leadership of Prof. Wen-Hsien Li,
with funding from the National Science Council of
Taiwan. The triple axis SIKA makes use of inelastic
neutron scattering spectroscopy to measure excitations
in materials. Final tests and the application for an
operation license are well underway.

New delegate to AONSA elected
The current Vice-president of ANOSA, Prof. WenHsien Li, will assume the presidency in 2014. Thismeans a new delegate will be required from TWNSS tofill the vacancy. The 2nd TWNSS executive committee
in July has elected our previous TWNSS president,
Prof. His-Mei Lai, to be the new delegate to ANOSA.
Therefore Prof. Lai and I will be the delegates to
AONSA in 2014. Prof. Lai has attended quite a few
AONSA meetings before and she is certainly a familiar
face to many AONSA members.
New NSRRC Office at ANSTO Opened
The longstanding collaboration of neutron researchers
between Taiwan and Australia has been raised to a newlevel by the opening of a new office of National
Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre (NSRRC from
Taiwan) at the Australian Nuclear Science andTechnology Organisation (ANSTO) on May 2nd. The
office is currently led by Dr. Jason Gardner who waspreviously responsible for the spin-echo spectrometerat the NIST Centre for Neutron Research, USA.
Eventually, four instrument scientists will join theoffice, covering powder diffraction, reflectometry,small-angle scattering and triple-axis spectroscopy.
Both directors, Dr. Robert Robinson from Bragg
Institute and Dr. Shih-Lin Chang from NSRRC, signed
a joint collaboration memorandum on the same day.

The VIPs joined the celebration of the opening of the NSRRC
office at the OPAL Reactor at ANSTO.

1st issue of TWNSS Newsletters published
Under the guidance of Last TWNSS president His-Mei
Lai and members of the executive committee, the firstissue of TWNSS newsletter has been published in
February. It provided information on both local andinternational activities related to neutron studies,
educational material, and a status report on TWNSS.
Like the AONSA newsletter, the TWNSS newsletter
publishes two issues per year. The second issue is
expected before September 2013.
TWNSS Annual Meeting in October planned
The TWNSS annual meeting is set to be held from
October 10th to 13th. It will be held at National
Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium (NMMBA),Checheng, Pingtung, Taiwan. It is a combined NSRRC
Neutron User Group Meeting, Taiwan Neutron Science
Conference, TWNSS annual meeting and TWNSS
Summer Training School. The participants will havethe opportunity to visit the museum and attend
scientific meetings and workshops in one trip.

Hsiung Chou
President, TWNSS

Volume 5, Number 1, 201314

Newsletter from AONSA

Facility Report
Report from J-PARC
The Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) is a multidisciplinary research facility that uses
high-energy protons to produce a variety of secondary-particle beams. The Materials and Life Science
Experimental Facility (MLF), one of the several facilities in J-PARC, is a research facility with state-of-the-art
pulsed neutron and muon source with 25 Hz repetition ratio. The proton accelerator power is presently 300 kW,
which will eventually be increased to 1 MW (3 GeV, 333 μA). There are 23 neutron beam extraction ports for thepulsed spallation neutron source, almost of which are occupied by operating neutron instruments or committed toplanned new instruments. General research proposals are called twice a year in May and October; it isrecommended that all applicants contact instrument scientists before submitting their proposals. For more
information, please see the webpage (http://j-parc.jp/MatLife/en/index.html)

Neutron and muon instruments at MLF

The Accident at the J-PARC Hadron Experimental
Facility
We would like to express all our deepest apologies
for any disruptions and concerns that may have beencaused by the leakage accident of radioactive material
at the Hadron Experimental Facility of Japan Proton
Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) in Japan.
On 23 May, due to a malfunction of the beam
extraction system of the 50 GeV synchrotron, a proton
beam was delivered to the gold target of the Hadronfacility for a very short time. As a result, the gold
target is considered to have momentarily reached an
extremely high temperature and part of the target was
damaged. Radioactive material then leaked into thehadron experimental hall and some workers were
externally and/or internally exposed to radiation.
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Operation of ventilation fans of the hall resulted in
the leak of radioactive material out of the radiation
controlled area of the Hadron Experimental Facility.
The data logs of radiation dose rates at monitoring
posts in the Nuclear Science Research Institute showedno signatures. However, at the three monitoring posts
and stations of the neighboring JAEA facility,
momentary increases of the radiation dose rate wereobserved. It is our assessment that the released
radioactive material was diluted and attenuated as it
dispersed in a narrow strip towards the west. The
maximum integrated radiation dose has been estimatedeven at the site boundary closest to the Hadron
Experimental Facility was 0.29 µSv (preliminary).
All J-PARC facilities have been shut down since theaccident. A full investigation of the cause of theaccident is now underway along with the complete
review of safety practices and emergency procedures at
Newsletter from AONSA

Facility Report
all J-PARC facilities. Our first priority is to restore
public trust in the facility by developing andimplementing measures to prevent the reoccurrence ofan accident and to provide a safe experimental
environment for users and workers.
We deeply appreciate your understanding andcontinuous support.

injected, a powerful pressure wave is produced due tothe heat expansion of mercury, and the resulting
impact force is large enough to damage the hard metal
surface of the target container (this damage is called"pitting"). In the future, the MLF aims to achieve
operation with a proton beam power of 1 MW, and amajor issue that needs to be addressed is how to lessen
this impact force. In previous off-line studies, it has
been shown that the force can be weakened by mixing
helium-gas microbubbles into the target mercury, toachieve a cushioning effect. Since autumn of last year,
the MLF has examined performance of the actual
system with built-in bubbler for producing
microbubbles in the mercury target, and since thencontinuous operation with 300 kW beam power has
started. Recently, it was confirmed using the special
neutron measurement instrument NOBORU (NeutrOn
Beamline for Observation and Research Use) in BL10
that an intensity of about 65 trillion neutrons per pulse
has been obtained, thereby confirming that this is theworld's highest intensity pulsed neutron source.

31 May, 2013
Yujiro IKEDA
Director, J-PARC center
Please see the website
http://www.j-parc.jp/HDAccident/HDAccidente.html for the latest information.
Current status of MLF (July, 2013)
The 2013A period of beam-operation at MLF began
on 1 April and 41 general experiments had alreadybeen carried out. However, all the facilities in J-PARC
including MLF have been shut down since the accidentof HD Facility. J-PARC is now surveying the cause of
the accident, reviewing the security systems of all thefacilities, and establishing new procedures and policies
to prevent any similar accidents, under the guidance ofthe relevant government agencies and in close
collaboration with JAEA and KEK. The date on which
J-PARC will resume operations is not clear at present,
but it will not be until after these investigations arecompleted and, more importantly, after we have reestablished public confidence in J-PARC. Accordingly,
J-PARC has announced the cancelation of assigned
beam-time to the end of July 2013. MLF has alsodecided to cancel 116 general experiment proposals in
the 2013A cycle. The shutdown of these facilities maylast throughout 2013, because a half-year shutdown
had already been scheduled from August. We
apologise for the inconvenience to the science
community caused by the current situation of J-PARC,
but appreciate your understanding and collaboration,and hope to see you again in Tokai.

Table Intensity of pulsed neutron beam.

Neutron Facility
J-PARC (300kW, 25Hz)
SNS (1MW, 60Hz)
ISIS 2nd TS (48kW, 10Hz)*

H2 side of the H2-CH4 composite moderator (notthe grooved moderator).

Elucidation of the hydrogen activation mechanismof nickel-iron catalyst using the "iBIX" single
crystal diffractometer
The hydrogen activity mechanism of a newly
developed Ni-Fe catalyst has been elucidated inneutron-based experiments using the BL03 (Ibaraki
Biological Crystal Diffractometer: iBIX) of MLF. The
ability to use inexpensive iron as a catalyst for
promoting (or inhibiting) chemical reactions is arevolutionary result that will open the way to futureapplications in areas such as fuel cell catalysts. This
result was made possible by the superior performanceof the iBIX, equipped with scintillators made from a
new material. This research achievement has been
published in the digital version of the American
science journal, "Science" (Feb. 8, 2013). The joint
research was conducted with Kyushu University,
CROSS and Ibaraki University.

Achievement of the world's highest pulsed neutron
beam intensity at J-PARC
At the Materials and Life Science Experimental
Facility (MLF), high-energy high-intensity proton
beams accelerated to near the speed of light arecollided with a mercury target, and researchers use thehigh-intensity pulsed neutrons produced from thenuclear spallation reaction in which the atomic nucleiof mercury are fragmented. When the proton beam is

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

Number of Neutrons[/pulse]
6.5 x 1013 (measured)
5.3 x 1013 (simulated)
4.9 x 1013 (simulated)*

16

Newsletter from AONSA

Facility Report

Nuclear density map of the Ni-Fe catalyst determined by using
iBIX single crystal diffractometer. A deuterium atom between Ni
and Fe, key of the hydrogen activity mechanism, was clearlyobserved.

alternative to 3He detectors. We expect that it will be
put to practical use, and are currently conducting
further R&D with international cooperation.
Recently, we completed a detector employing this JPARC technology, as the detector in non-destructive
measurement equipment for safeguard demonstration
testing. The purpose of the detector is to measureneutrons from substances such as U and Pu containedin nuclear fuel. The plan calls for 60 or more of thesedetectors to be installed in equipment designed by the
Nuclear Science and Engineering Directorate of the
JAEA, so that neutron measurements can be carriedout with high detection efficiency. In this way, neutron
measurement technology previously developed by JPARC is being applied to neutron measurement in the
nuclear security field.

Scintillator detector developed by J-PARC :neutron measurements contributing to nuclear
security (Safeguards)
Neutron detectors using 3He are widely used at JPARC and throughout the world in pulsed neutron
source facilities, and in the field of nuclear security.
However, in recent years, there has been a severe
shortage in the supply of 3He gas, and thus there is anurgent need to develop a substitute detector.
At J-PARC, we have been developing a twodimensional detector using wavelength shifting fibers
together with a scintillator based on a new material(ZnS/10B2O3) for detection of high-intensity neutrons.
We have also been developing measurement
technologies for this system. The detector has alreadybeen installed, and is in use, in some beam-lines such
as BL03 (Ibaraki Biological Crystal Diffractometer:
iBIX) and BL18 (Extreme Environment Single Crystal
Neutron Diffractometer: SENJU). We are applying thisunique technology to meet the urgent need for an

Volume 5, Number 1, 2013

Takashi Ohhara
JAEA,J-PARC

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Report from AONSA Office
Report from AONSA Office
The number of neutron users in the Asia-Oceania
region was surveyed during January 12-18, 2013.
The total number of neutron users in the region is2,500 (as of January, 2013), which is significantly
higher than the estimate (1,500) made when
AONSA was first established in 2008. Thissuggests a rapid and very healthy increase in theneutron community across the region. It will behistorically important to continue to sample theuser community in three-year intervals in order tomeasure the effects of new sources coming on linein the region. A summary of neutron users in eachsociety is as following.
Australia + New Zealand (ANBUG Members):
370
India (Neutron Users): 200
Japan (Neutron Users): 1050

Volume 5, Number 1, 201318

Korea (KNBUA Members): 280
Taiwan (Neutron Users): 75
China (Neutron Users): 450
Indonesia (Neutron Users): 15
Malaysia (Neutron Users): 15
Singapore (Neutron Users): 15
Mongolia (Neutron Users): 10
Depending on the response of each society, theexact meaning of the numbers may differ fromeach other; to clarify, the meanings of thenumbers are stated in parentheses.
Sung-Min Choi
Secretary of AONSA

Newsletter from AONSA

Report from AONSA Office
Calendar of AONSA Activities(as of 2013/Aug.)

Year 2013
1/14-1/17
6/17-6/21
7/8-7/12
7/9
7/9
7/12
7/14-7/19
11/17
12/1-12/4

The 2nd International Symposium on Neutron Scattering/ISNS (Mumbai, India)
The 6th AONSA Neutron School (Tokai, Japan) (Cancelled)
The 10th International Conference on Neutron Scattering (Edinburgh, UK)
The 10th AONSA EC Meeting (Edinburgh, UK, during ICNS2013) (Re-scheduled)
AONSA Regional Meeting during ICNS2013 (Edinburgh, UK)
AONSA Prize Award Ceremony during ICNS2013 (Edinburgh, UK)
The 12th Asia-Pacific Physics Conference/APPC (Chiba, Japan)
The 11th AONSA EC Meeting
AsCA 2013 (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Year 2014
TBD
8/5-8/12

The 7th AONSA Neutron School (Serpong, Indonesia)
The 23rd IUCr Congress and General Assembly (Montreal, Canada)

Location of AONSA Office(Secretary: Yukino Inoue)
Neutron Science Section, Materials & Life Science Division,
J-PARC Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)
2-4 Shirakata-Shirane, Tokai, Ibaraki, JAPAN 319-1195
Phone: +81-29-284-3752
Fax: +81-29-284-3889
Email address: inoue.yukino@jaea.go.jp
For more information: http://www.aonsa.org

Volume 5, Number 1, 201319

Newsletter from AONSA