page_title: Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory / History
caption_attribution_description: TUNL viewed from behind, showing the lab level obscured from above
context_page_description: The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory, abbreviated as TUNL, is a tripartite research consortium operated by Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University. The laboratory is located on the West Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Researchers are now drawn from several other universities around the United States in addition to members from the founding universities. TUNL also participates in long term collaborations with universities and laboratories around the world. Funding for TUNL comes primarily from the United States Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Physics.
  TUNL operates three laboratory facilities, all of which reside on Duke University's campus. Two of the facilities, the Tandem Accelerator Laboratory and the Laboratory for Experimental Nuclear Astrophysics, are low energy charged beam accelerators. The third facility is the High Intensity Gamma-Ray Source, which produces the highest intensity polarized Gamma ray beams in the world.
context_section_description: Research at TUNL is focused on nuclear physics, including studies on Fundamental symmetries, Neutrinos, Nuclear astrophysics, and Hadron structure.  TUNL also conducts applied research, investigating the applications of nuclear physics to topics such as National security, Public health, and Plant physiology.
  The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory was established in 1965, with a $2.5 Million grant from the United States Atomic Energy Commission providing the funding for a new 15 MeV Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator as well as a 15 MeV Cyclotron. After three years of construction and testing, the new accelerator facility became operational in December 1968. Henry Newson, a nuclear physics professor at Duke University, was responsible for the proposal, was the original proponent of combining the efforts of the three universities, and served as the first director of the new laboratory. The Tandem Generator and the Cyclotron at TUNL were combined into what was named a Cyclo-Graaff accelerator. Ions would first be accelerated in the Cyclotron. Then, once the initial energy was high enough, the beam from the cyclotron would be injected into the Tandem Generator where it would be further accelerated. Using the accelerators together effectively doubled the maximum energy that the lab could reach when compared to the energies of each individual accelerator. This combination, the Cyclo-Graaff, would be used by Henry Newson to study Nuclear Structure until his death in 1978.
caption: View of TUNL Lab Level
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