The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Physics Facilities and Project Management Division and the National Science Foundation Nuclear Physics Program held the annual progress review of the SEparator for CApture Reactions (SECAR) recoil separator project through remote participation 11-12 June. SECAR will be a recoil separator that is optimized for measurements of capture reactions of importance for nuclear astrophysics.

The committee assessed SECAR’s scientific merit, technical progress, management, budget, schedule, and environment, safety, and health approach, and answered all five charge questions affirmatively. The committee was impressed with the review preparation, level of documentation, and quality of the presentations. It found the science case to be compelling, and performance on technical progress, cost, schedule, and risk appropriate. It commended the team in particular for safely minimizing the impact of COVID-19, the seamless integration into FRIB, and the employment of machine-learning techniques for beam-tuning.

The SECAR collaboration includes nuclear astrophysics groups from:

• Argonne National Laboratory,
• Central Michigan University,
• Colorado School of Mines,
• Louisiana State University,
• McMaster University,
• Michigan State University,
• University of Notre Dame,
• Oak Ridge National Lab, and
• South Dakota School of Mines.