2014 Appropriations Bill Contains Funding for MSU’s FRIB

U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin announced the new appropriations bill released today will include their full request for funding for Michigan State University's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) project. Should the appropriations bill pass, it will provide $55 million for FRIB and authorize construction to begin this year. The bill could be voted on as early as next week.

"The research that will be done at this state-of-the-art MSU facility is critical to Michigan and the entire country, and will create thousands of jobs in our state," Stabenow said. "When this bill passes, Michigan State will finally be able to start work on this project in the next few months."

"FRIB is essential to America's continued leadership in nuclear science," said Levin. "It's a powerful statement about Michigan's role in maintaining that leadership. And it's a major economic boost for our state. FRIB funding in this legislation is a key milestone in turning FRIB's promise into reality and strengthening Michigan's role in advanced science."

"We are incredibly excited that full funding for FRIB was included in the omnibus bill," said MSU President Lou Anna Simon. "This is a Rose Bowl-like win which enables MSU to initiate the construction of FRIB and moves us closer to realizing the full benefits of this project for science, for the people of Michigan and for the Nation. We want to express our deep gratitude to the Michigan delegation who worked tirelessly to ensure our victory, especially Senators Stabenow and Levin, and Congressmen Rogers, Camp and Upton. We are also grateful for our strong partnership with the Department of Energy Office of Science. FRIB is a transformative project that will ensure MSU and the Nation continues to lead the world in nuclear physics."

Michigan State's FRIB project will pursue scientific breakthroughs by creating and studying elements that do not normally occur naturally on Earth. Studying these extraordinarily rare materials, which often exist for only a fraction of a second, can help advance scientific research in many fields, including using isotopes to improve medical imaging and the treatment of cancer.

FRIB will generate an estimated $1 billion in economic activity for Michigan during the project's first decade, creating thousands of jobs during construction and hundreds of high-paying permanent jobs.

FRIB will cement Michigan State University's status as one of the world's premier centers for nuclear science. The facility will use the latest scientific equipment to create isotopes - variants of natural chemical elements with minutely different atomic structures than their more common chemical siblings. FRIB will create rare isotopes by accelerating atoms of naturally occurring elements to about half the speed of light and crashing them into a thin target material.