The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), a $1.4 billion research facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), is a feat of precision engineering, execution, and control. Each component of the SNS machine requires exactness in location and assembly only achieved through the use of laser tracking systems. Year by year, piece by piece, the planet's most powerful accelerator-based neutron source has slowly and methodically come alive. Its first target station will operate with 24 beam lines running at a frequency of 60 Hertz (Hz), then eventually ramp up to 1.4 megawatts with 8 times more beam power than any existing pulsed neutron source.

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