U.S. Senator Tim Kaine tours the nation’s premiere facility for studying the quark structure of the atom's nucleus
Senator Tim Kaine visited the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility for an informational facility tour on May 29 as part of a four-day trip through Hampton Roads and surrounding communities.
The visit was kicked off with a briefing in which Jefferson Lab Director Stuart Henderson updated the senator on the completion of the upgrade of the nation’s premiere facility for studying the quark structure of the atom's nucleus. Henderson and other subject matter experts then provided an informational tour of two key areas.
The senator first visited a facility dedicated to R&D of superconducting radiofrequency accelerator technologies. These technologies support U.S. and international needs for advanced research facilities and apparatus, such as the Linac Coherent Light Source-II project at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Ca.
The last stop on the tour was in the lab’s Experimental Hall D, a new experimental area dedicated to providing insight into one of the universe’s great mysteries: why the fundamental constituents of matter, quarks, may never be found in isolation.
Jefferson Lab is a DOE Office of Science national laboratory. More than 1,600 scientists worldwide come to Jefferson Lab to use its unique particle accelerator, known as the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). CEBAF enables a diverse and compelling program of experiments to probe the most basic building blocks of matter - helping us to better understand these particles and the forces that bind them - and ultimately our world.
Contact: Lauren Hansen, Jefferson Lab Communications Office, 757-269-7689, lhansen@jlab.org