42 U.S.C. § 18646 — Nuclear physics

(a) Program. The Director must run a research program, and support the facilities needed for it, to discover and understand different forms of nuclear matter. (b) Electron Ion Collider. (1) In general: The Secretary must support building an Electron Ion Collider, as described in a named 2015 nuclear-physics long-range plan and a National Academies report, to measure the internal structure of protons and nuclei and answer basic questions about ordinary matter. (2) Facility capability: the facility must meet the requirements from that 2015 plan, including: (A) beams of electrons and light ions at least 70% polarized; (B) ion beams ranging from deuterium to the heaviest stable nuclei; (C) a center-of-mass energy that can be adjusted from 20 to 140 GeV; (D) high collision luminosity of 10^33–34 cm⁻²s⁻¹; and (E) the possibility of building more than one interaction region. (3) Start of operations: subject to available funding, the Secretary must aim for full operations to begin before December 31, 2030. (4) Funding: $90,000,000 (2023); $181,000,000 (2024); $219,000,000 (2025); $297,000,000 (2026); and $301,000,000 (2027). (c) Authorization of appropriations. Out of Office of Science funds, this section is authorized to receive: $840,480,000 (2023); $976,508,800 (2024); $1,062,239,328 (2025); $1,190,833,688 (2026); and $1,248,463,709 (2027).