Welcome to the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre

		Applying for Beam Time
		Proposals for experiments may be submitted at any time by any prospective user. Access to the neutron beam centre by academic users is granted on the basis of the scientific merit of the proposals, which shall be reviewed by subject-oriented committees of scientists drawn from the user community. Apply for beam time...

The National Research Council Canada operates the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (CNBC). The centre is a resource for university scientists, industrial users, and visitors from NRC and other government laboratories.

Neutrons are a gentle but penetrating probe of matter, and can be used to discover much about a wide range of materials. Access to neutron spectrometers and a variety of ancillary equipment is granted free of charge to users whose research is destined for the public domain. For proprietary research, access is arranged through a simple fee-for-service agreement.

Canadian Impact

In the 2005/06 year NRC-CNBC enabled 78 projects that resulted in 123 experiments. Those experiments involved Canadian scientists from 28 institutions (including 17 universities) in 7 provinces from coast to coast. Those experiments involved collaborations with scientists from 58 institutions in 9 foreign countries. Projects came from the fields of physics, chemistry, bioscience, earth science and engineering and included samples made from more than half of the 82 stable elements in the periodic table.

Professors and students from 23 Canadian universities coast to coast used the centre in their research during the past five years. They came from over 50 different faculties, spanning, physics, materials science, chemistry, engineering, metallurgy, geosciences, and chemical engineering.

Global Reach

		Research in hydrogen storage
		Neutron scattering is an excellent technique for research concerning hydrogen in materials. Unlike X-rays, neutrons are very sensitive to hydrogen and its isotopes, scattering differently from hydrogen and deuterium. The NRC Canadian Neutron Beam Centre is planning to make a significant contribution to the Canadian research community working in the field of hydrogen storage materials, with the recent completion of a new piece of apparatus at the lab. New Facility for Hydrogen Storage Research...

In the last three years, the Canadian Neutron Beam Centre has been used by scientists from 114 institutions in 14 countries around the world. Those scientists used the world class facilities at Chalk River in both independent research and collaborative projects with NRC staff.

Copies of our 2006 annual report are now available. To request a copy, contact Alastair McIvor.