Korea, U.S. open joint particle acceleration center

The Korea-U.S. Cooperation Center for Accelerator Science will begin operations on Tuesday, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Monday.

The center is located within the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and is established as part of an agreement signed in June by the U.S. organization and Korea’s Institute for Basic Science to collaborate on research using particle accelerators.

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory operates the world’s second-highest energy particle collider known as the Tevatron, which accelerates protons and anti-protons for research into subatomic particles.

Through the new center, Korean and U.S. scientists will collaborate in areas concerning Korea’s efforts for building a heavy ion accelerator at the International Science Business Belt that will be established in Daejeon and nearby cities, the ministry said. Korea is planning to complete the heavy ion accelerator in 2017.

The ministry also said that the center will expand the collaboration network to include other North American institutions including Canada’s TRIUMF.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)