Brookhaven National Laboratory

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Aerial view of Brookhaven National Laboratory.
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Aerial view of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), is a national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base. Brookhaven is operated for the United States Department of Energy by Brookhaven Science Associates, and it specializes in nuclear physics research. It is staffed by over 3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel, and hosts 4,000 guest investigators every year. Discoveries made at the lab have won six Nobel Prizes.

Facilities at Brookhaven Lab include the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), designed to research quark-gluon plasma, the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), and two cyclotrons used to produce radioactive materials for medical applications. Areas of research include nuclear and high-energy physics, structural biology, and nuclear nonproliferation.

An accidental, highly publicized leakage of tritium into the groundwater during the 1990s angered people living near the lab, and led to management changes.

The lab helped discover the charm quark in 1974.

The lab is open to the public on Sundays during the summer for tours and special programs, helping its connection with the surrounding community.

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