Michigan State University approves site prep funding for new isotope lab

From The Detroit Free Press: The Michigan State University board of trustees has approved the next phase of the Facility of Rare Isotope Beams, despite some uncertainty over federal funding for it. The board agreed to spend $20 million for site preparation and excavation on the East Lansing campus. Federal funding for the project came into question this month after U.S. Department of Education Secretary Steven Chu said it was uncertain. The facility would be at least 1,000 times more powerful than the machines now running at MSU's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Read more about the planned facility.

From 2009... News release: Michigan State University in East Lansing has signed a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy that will provide financial assistance to the university to design and build the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). FRIB will be a new research tool for probing into the heart of atoms. The centerpiece of the facility will be a superconducting linear accelerator that will dramatically increase the reach of rare isotope research in the United States. The $550 million facility is expected to be operational in about a decade, will have about 400 employees and serve about 1,000 users.