CEA / LLB

The French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique) is a public body leader in research, development and innovation. The CEA mission statement has two main objectives: To become the leading technological research organization in Europe and to ensure that the nuclear deterrent remains effective in the future. The CEA is active in three main fields: Energy, Information and health technologies, Defense and national security. In each of these fields, the CEA maintains a cross-disciplinary culture of engineers and researchers, building on the synergies between fundamental and technological research. In 2008, the total CEA workforce consisted of 15 000 employees (52 % of whom were in management grades). The Léon Brillouin Laboratory (LLB) is the National Laboratory of neutron scattering, serving science and industry. The LLB uses the neutrons produced by Orphée, a fission reactor of 14 MW of power. The LLB-Orphée facility is supported jointly by the CEA and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). The CEA operates the reactor Orphée located at the Centre d‘Etudes de Saclay, since 1980. The LLB gathers the scientists who operate the neutron scattering spectrometers installed around the reactor Orphée. Its missions are: to promote the use of diffraction and neutron spectroscopy, to welcome and assist experimentations, to develop some research on its own scientific programmes. Classified as a ― Large Installation ―, LLB is part of the European NMI3 program (The Integrated Infrastructure Initiative for Neutron Scattering and Muon Spectroscopy), granted by the European Union. Every year, 400 experiments are performed at the LLB, 70% by French teams and 25 % from European ones. The LLB has developed a general system for data collection and storage called Tokuma, unlimited in time easily accessible on request. The traditional data format at the LLB is XML but for the instruments generating high amount of data, Nexus format has been chosen. The LLB support software for data treatment analysis for all type of experiments since many years, which can be download either on the LLB website or on request.