As part of the activities authorized under section 7139 of this title, the Director shall carry out a research program, and support relevant facilities, to discover and understand various forms of nuclear matter.
The Secretary shall support construction of an Electron Ion Collider as described in the 2015 Long Range Plan of the Nuclear Science Advisory Committee and the report from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine entitled “An Assessment of U.S.-Based Electron-Ion Collider Science”, in order to measure the internal structure of the proton and the nucleus and answer fundamental questions about the nature of visible matter.
The Secretary shall, subject to the availability of appropriations, ensure that the start of full operations of the facility under this subsection occurs before December 31, 2030.