 Aerial view of Rutherford Appleton Laboratory | |
| Established | 1957 (1957) |
|---|---|
Laboratory type | National scientific research laboratory |
Field of research | |
| Staff | 1,200 |
| Location | Chilton, Oxfordshire, England 51°34′24″N1°18′53″W / 51.57333°N 1.31472°W /51.57333; -1.31472 |
Operating agency | Science and Technology Facilities Council |
| Website | www |
| Map | |
  Location in Oxfordshire | |
TheRutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is one of the national scientific research laboratories in the UK operated by theScience and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).[1] It began as theRutherford High Energy Laboratory, merged with theAtlas Computer Laboratory in 1975 to create theRutherford Lab; then in 1979 with theAppleton Laboratory to form the current laboratory.
It is located on theHarwell Science and Innovation Campus atChilton nearDidcot in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It has a staff of approximately 1,200 people who support the work of over 10,000 scientists and engineers, chiefly from the university research community. The laboratory's programme is designed to deliver trained manpower and economic growth for the UK as the result of achievements in science.
RAL is named after thephysicistsErnest Rutherford andEdward Appleton.
The National Institute for Research in Nuclear Science (NIRNS) was formed in 1957 to operate the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory established next to theAtomic Energy Research Establishment on the formerRAF Harwell airfield betweenChilton andHarwell. The 50MeVprotonlinear accelerator[2] was transferred from theAtomic Energy Research Establishment to the new laboratory to become a national facility for particle physics as theNimrod. Some components of thislinear accelerator are still operating as part of theISIS Neutron and Muon Source injector linac over 50 years after their first use.[3] Since then the laboratory has grown both with the expansion of its established facilities, and the incorporation of facilities from other institutions to provide the benefits fromeconomies of scale. The major mergers were in 1975 with the adjacentAtlas Computer Laboratory creating the Rutherford Laboratory, and then in 1979 with theAppleton Laboratory to form the current Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. With the closure of theRoyal Greenwich Observatory in 1998, some small offices also moved to RAL. Similarly, laser technology moved to RAL fromJoint European Torus atCulham to become the foundation of the Central Laser Facility.
To be able to decide the priorities for government funding across all areas of scientific research, the Science & Technology Act of 1965[4] created the Science Research Council (SRC) which took over management of the Rutherford High Energy Laboratory from NIRNS along with many other previously disparate UK science bodies. To prioritise economic impact overblue skies research, the SRC became theScience and Engineering Research Council (SERC) in the early 1980s, and in 1994,[5] the SERC was eventually divided into threeResearch Councils (theEPSRC,PPARC and theCCLRC – which took responsibility for RAL from EPSRC in 1995[6]), so that each could then focus its development around one of three incompatible business models – administratively efficient short duration grant distribution, medium term commitments to international agreements, long-term commitments to staff and facilities provision. To unify the planning of the provision for UK scientists to access large national and international facilities,[7] in 2007 the CCLRC merged with PPARC and incorporated thenuclear physics discipline from EPSRC to create theScience and Technology Facilities Council which then took responsibility for RAL.[8]
The site hosts some of the UK's major scientific facilities, including:
Also hosted are:
In addition to hosting facilities for the UK, RAL also operates departments to co-ordinate the UK programme of participation in major international facilities. The largest of these are the areas ofparticle physics, andspace science.
Inparticle physics the largest international project is theLarge Hadron Collider atCERN, but RAL has a major role in the UK participation in several other projects such as:[16]
Inspace science, RAL builds components for, and tests satellites, as well as receiving, analysing and curating the data collected by those spacecraft.[17] Satellite missions in which RAL has a significant role include:
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In recent years, there has been an increasing political drive towards requiring that the science undertaken at RAL and the technology created there result in a proportional economic benefit to the UK to justify the investment of public funds in the laboratory. RAL management has argued that this is achieved in various ways, including:
According to its Annual Report from 2017 to 2018, STFC expects the end of the ISIS pulsed neutron source and the associated Second Target Station to be in 2040 and anticipates decommissioning to take 55 years. The cost of radioactive waste disposal could range between £9 million and £16 million.[19]: 51
RAL was used as a set for the filming of an episode ofTerry Nation'sBBC TV seriesBlake's 7.
Thecomputer-generated imagery (CGI) forRidley Scott's 1979 filmAlien were created at theAtlas Computer Laboratory which is now part of RAL.
The Space Science department featured in the "In the Box" episode of theCBeebies seriesNina and the Neurons.
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