Once confinement is reestablished and the reactor has been restarted, work will begin installing NG-5, NG-6, and NG-7 in the guide hall. Because NG-7 serves several instruments including a heavily oversubscribed 30 m SANS diffractometer, priority will be placed on first reopening NG-7 followed by NG-6 and then NG-5.
While reinstalling and realigning NG-7, we will attempt to maintain the existing beam centerline so that the interferometers, the test station, and the 30 m SANS instrument will not need to be repositioned. We expect this work to be complete approximately 2 years after the beginning of the reactor outage.
NG-6 will be replaced with a new guide of the same size but with higher m coatings. Additionally, the new NG-6 will be slightly curved to eliminate line of site to the core. The bottom section will end slightly upstream of the end of the guide allowing an instrument to sit on a side position (NG-6a). without interference from the monochromator upstream of it. We expect that the upgraded imaging station will be available to users approximately 3 years after the beginning of the reactor outage.
Finally, NG-5 will be completed with new elliptical guide. The new guide will be straight and will supply neutrons for a new cold triple axis spectrometer. The new NG-5 instrument is not expected before 2027.