Awareness, Preference, Utilization, and Messaging Research for the Spallation Neutron Source and High Flux Isotope Reactor
- Bryant Research, LLC
- ORNL
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) offers the scientific community unique access to two types of world-class neutron sources at a single site - the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) and the High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR). The 85-MW HFIR provides one of the highest steady-state neutron fluxes of any research reactor in the world, and the SNS is one of the world's most intense pulsed neutron beams. Management of these two resources is the responsibility of the Neutron Sciences Directorate (NScD). NScD commissioned this survey research to develop baseline information regarding awareness of and perceptions about neutron science. Specific areas of investigative interest include the following: (1) awareness levels among those in the scientific community about the two neutron sources that ORNL offers; (2) the level of understanding members of various scientific communities have regarding benefits that neutron scattering techniques offer; and (3) any perceptions that negatively impact utilization of the facilities. NScD leadership identified users of two light sources in North America - the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory and the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory - as key publics. Given the type of research in which these scientists engage, they would quite likely benefit from including the neutron techniques available at SNS and HFIR among their scientific investigation tools. The objective of the survey of users of APS, NSLS, SNS, and HFIR was to explore awareness of and perceptions regarding SNS and HFIR among those in selected scientific communities. Perceptions of SNS and FHIR will provide a foundation for strategic communication plan development and for developing key educational messages. The survey was conducted in two phases. The first phase included qualitative methods of (1) key stakeholder meetings; (2) online interviews with user administrators of APS and NSLS; and (3) one-on-one interviews and traditional and online focus groups with scientists. The latter include SNS, HFIR, and APS users as well as scientists at ORNL, some of whom had not yet used HFIR and/or SNS. These approaches informed development of the second phase, a quantitative online survey. The survey consisted of 16 questions and 7 demographic categorizations, 9 open-ended queries, and 153 pre-coded variables and took an average time of 18 minutes to complete. The survey was sent to 589 SNS/HFIR users, 1,819 NSLS users, and 2,587 APS users. A total of 899 individuals provided responses for this study: 240 from NSLS; 136 from SNS/HFIR; and 523 from APS. The overall response rate was 18%.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Spallation Neutron Source (SNS)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 1009487
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL/TM-2011/81; KC0402010; ERKCSNX; TRN: US1101568
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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