Report of the Panel on Electron Accelerator Facilities, DOE/NSF Nuclear Science Advisory Committee

This Panel finds that the highest priority for new accelerator construction in the US nuclear physics program is for an electron accelerator of high duty factor capable of producing beams at any energy in the range from 500 to 4000 MeV. After detailed study and consideration of the proposals for such facilities submitted to it, the Panel recommends: that the proposal submitted by the Southeastern University Research Association (SURA) be accepted and funded for the construction of a new National Electron Accelerator Laboratory (NEAL) centering on a 4 GeV linear accelerator-stretcher ring system capable of delivering intense, high duty factor, electron beams in the energy range from 500 to 4000 MeV. Additional recommendations relating to this principal one are to be found in the body of this report. As modified by the Panel consequent to its own studies and analyses, the estimated cost (in 1983 dollars) of the accelerator complex is 111.8 million dollars; of the entire laboratory is 146.8 million dollars; and the operating cost averaged over the first five years of operation is 18.1 million dollars per year. The projected 15 year total cost of the project is 418.3 million dollars. The construction period is estimated to be 4.5 years. The NEAL Laboratory, from the outset will be constructed and managed as a national rather than a regional facility and will provide the United States with a truly unique facility for research in electromagnetic physics