MSU edges out Argonne for nuclear lab

LANSING, Mich. -- Federal officials picked Michigan State University over an Illinois laboratory Thursday to build a $550 million nuclear physics facility that could attract top scientists and cutting-edge industries.

The university beat out the Argonne National Laboratory near Darien for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, or FRIB. The U.S. Department of Energy's decision not only rewarded years of planning by university officials but also boosted spirits at a time Detroit automakers may collapse without government loans.

"It is the best news for Michigan in a long time," said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich, who lobbied for the project with members of the state's congressional delegation.

The next-generation nuclear science and astrophysics facility will be built within 10 years, assuming funding is approved by Congress. Michigan State will pick up some of the cost.

The project could spark scientific breakthroughs affecting medicine, national defense and the environment. It will expand upon the school's technology that accelerates atomic nuclei to high speeds and shatters them into rare isotopes not found on Earth.

The technology will be at least 1,000 times more powerful than 20-year-old machines at Michigan State's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, which is funded primarily by the U.S. government and school. Experiments that last a year at the lab will take only a week at the new facility, Cyclotron spokesman Geoff Koch said, keeping the U.S. competitive with sites in Germany and Japan.

The facility will have "world-unique" abilities to help researchers "extend the reach of nuclear science," according to the university.

Officials at Argonne, the country's first national laboratory, which was chartered in 1946 and is located 25 miles southwest of Chicago, were disappointed it did not get the facility.

"Argonne has been a pioneer in accelerator physics for decades and much of the science for FRIB was developed here at the laboratory," the lab said in a statement.

Michigan State and the Energy Department still must negotiate a cooperative agreement in coming months, and the proposed site must pass an environmental review.

A federal advisory committee concluded as early as 1996 that an isotope facility would be vital to U.S. nuclear science.