The institute was founded by France and Germany, with the United Kingdom becoming the third major partner in 1973. These partner states provide, through
Research Councils, the bulk of its funding. Ten other countries have since become partners. Scientists of institutions in the member states may apply to use the ILL facilities, and may invite scientists from other countries to participate. Experimental time is allocated by a scientific council involving ILL users. The use of the facility and travel costs for researchers are paid for by the institute. Commercial use, for which a fee is charged, is not subject to the scientific council review process. Over 750 experiments are completed every year, in fields including
magnetism,
superconductivity,
materials engineering, and the study of
liquids,
colloids and biological substances such as
proteins. The institute houses a high-flux research reactor, the French High Flux Reactor (RHF), designed primarily for neutron scattering experiments. The RHF is a
heavy water-moderated research reactor using highly-enriched (93%) UAlx plate-type
metal fuel. The reactor produces 58.3 MW of thermal power, and delivers one of the highest neutron fluxes available in the world (1.5×1015 neutrons per cm2 per second). Neutrons are directed from the core at a suite of instruments to probe the structure and behaviour of many forms of matter by elastic and
inelastic neutron scattering, and to probe the fundamental physical properties of the
neutron.
Fission products and
gamma rays produced by nuclear reactions in the reactor core are also used by the instrument suite. In 2000 began the introduction of new instruments and instrument upgrades. The first phase has already resulted in a 17-fold gains in performance. The second phase started in 2008: it comprises the building of 5 new instruments, the upgrade of 4 others, and the installation of 3 new neutron guides. == EPN Science Campus ==