US Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science

US Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science
Name	US Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science
Caption	Strategic roadmap for nuclear physics research facilities and programs
Country	United States
Subject	Nuclear physics, accelerator science, nuclear astrophysics, quantum information
Year	2023–2025 cycle (iterative)

Contents

US Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science The US Long Range Plan for Nuclear Science is a decadal-style strategic roadmap that articulates prioritized research directions, facility upgrades, and programmatic recommendations for nuclear physics in the United States Department of Energy and National Science Foundation ecosystems. It synthesizes input from national laboratories such as Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory together with university consortia including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, and Michigan State University. The plan informs decisions by agencies like the Office of Science (United States Department of Energy) and bodies such as the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee.

Overview and Purpose

The plan defines strategic goals for subfields including nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, fundamental symmetries, and hot dense matter while relating to major programs at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. It aims to coordinate investments across agencies like the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation and to align with international partners such as CERN, RIKEN, and TRIUMF. The document serves stakeholders including national laboratories, research universities, and professional societies like the American Physical Society and the Nuclear Physics European Collaboration Committee.

The plan is produced via community-driven topical town halls, commissioned white papers from groups at institutions such as Stanford University, Caltech, and Northwestern University, and working groups chaired by leaders with affiliations to Argonne National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Contributors include program officers from the Office of Nuclear Physics (DOE), representatives from the National Science Board, and delegates from societies including the American Chemical Society where nuclear chemistry overlap exists. The process mirrors prior community planning efforts like the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel and consults international roadmaps such as those from European Strategy for Particle Physics.

The plan prioritizes experiments probing quantum chromodynamics at facilities including Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and future upgrades at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, advancing rare isotope research at Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, and enhancing capabilities for neutrino and neutrinoless double beta decay searches tied to projects at Sudbury Neutrino Observatory-style installations and partnerships with Fermilab. It recommends investments in accelerator technologies exemplified by work at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, development of detector systems influenced by innovations from ATLAS and CMS, and sustained support for theoretical efforts rooted in collaborations with Institute for Nuclear Theory and the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Cross-disciplinary recommendations highlight intersections with quantum information science centers at University of Chicago and materials science programs at Sandia National Laboratories.

The roadmap details phased upgrades and construction priorities: completion and exploitation of Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, upgrades to Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility's CEBAF, targeted enhancements at Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and modernization of isotope production infrastructure at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's High Flux Isotope Reactor. It outlines coordination with international megaprojects like FAIR and shared detector development drawing on expertise from CERN collaborations. The roadmap emphasizes computing and data facilities, leveraging partnerships with Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility and cloud initiatives involving National Center for Supercomputing Applications.

The plan provides phased budgetary scenarios and implementation milestones intended to guide appropriations by committees such as the United States House Committee on Appropriations and the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations while informing agency programming at the Department of Energy and National Science Foundation. It recommends near-term investments for detector and accelerator R&D, mid-term milestones for facility commissioning, and long-term sustainment strategies tied to federal budget cycles and authorization processes like those overseen by the Office of Management and Budget. The timeline integrates contingency planning based on prior program lessons from Human Genome Project-era management and large-science governance models exemplified by ITER.

The plan emphasizes workforce development through graduate and postdoctoral training programs housed at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, and University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign and through national laboratory internships at Brookhaven National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. It recommends diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives aligned with frameworks from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and outreach partnerships with museums like the Smithsonian Institution and education programs supported by American Association of Physics Teachers. Metrics for impact include placement of trainees in academia and industry, technology transfer pathways to companies such as General Electric and Siemens, and public engagement measured via collaborations with agencies like NASA and media outreach involving American Institute of Physics.