At the April 1999 Science Council meeting, the magnetism college chairman (R. Cywinski) in his report gave an order of priority for the Millenium programme, with first priority going to super-D2B, followed closely by D3-polarimetry.  He wrote “The subcommittee expressed its strongest support for the super-D2B high-resolution diffractometer upgrade... the principal advantage of the proposed order of magnitude increase in intensity would not be that more experiments could be performed, but that new science would ensue”.  He referred to charge density ordering, incommensurate and complex magnetic structures, the interplay of magnetic and structural transitions, small moment systems, and new possibilities for exploring complex systems in the parameter space of temperature, pressure, magnetic field and composition.

The Crystallography college chairman (W. Kuhs) wrote “Over one hour was devoted to the discussion…the highest priority was given ex aequo to Thermal LADI and the D2B upgrade.  Both proposals were considered of outstanding quality, both in its scientific case and its technical feasibility”. In a letter to D. Dubbers, he wrote “I have seen the minutes of the last scientific council… that the scientific case should be strengthened… I had the strong impression that a good scientific case was made in the powder workshop…”.  He referred to the work of his group on recently discovered phases of ice and clathrates at high pressure, and pointed out that increased intensity was needed for the study of such meta-stable and transient phases.

The chairman of the Science Council Powder Review (C. de Novion) wrote in his interim report on instrument upgrades, after organising a workshop attended by many participants from both pulsed and synchrotron sources “The super-D2B upgrade project, presented within the new ILL Millennium Programme, was considered as a first priority, in particular the new (and higher) detector set.  This would allow to use routinely the D2B instrument in its highest resolution mode”.  In his final report in October, he wrote “It is rated as first priority by the Subcommittees 5a and 5b, which answer partially at least, to the requirement of the S.C. (“scientific case needs to be strengthened…).  The first part of the project, new detectors and collimators, is well defined and has a good scientific return on investment ratio”.

Indeed, the new chairman of the Crystallography college (M. Latroche) wrote in his October report “… the subcommittee still strongly supports the D2B project.  Structural determination by powder diffraction is a basic work that cannot be bypassed…” In a letter to D. Dubbers, he wrote “Our research group has shown the complementarity between neutron and synchrotron techniques by solving complex structures using joint refinement… from D2B and BM16 at ESRF.  These structures cannot be solved from synchrotron data alone, and neutron data were essential…”

The Magnetism college chairman (R. Cywinski) further wrote in October “The subcommittee expressed its strongest and unequivocal support for the super-D2B high resolution diffractometer upgrade”. “Several Experiments proposed during this round underlined the need for both high resolution and high count rate”.  He went on to give examples of D2B highlights including a new one dimensional cuprate that can only be synthesised in very small quantities under very high oxygen pressure. He concluded, “… longer term issues should not cloud the case for an urgent, well argued, and readily achievable upgrade to the present D2B”.