The Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (WNSL) at Yale University houses the world's most powerful stand-alone tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, capable of terminal voltages up to 20 MV.

There are active in-house research programs in nuclear structure, nuclear astrophysics, and relativistic heavy ion physics. The nuclear structure group studies the behavior of the atomic nucleus under the induced stress of high angular momentum, high excitation energies, or extreme ratios of proton to neutron number.

The nuclear astrophysics program centers on the study of the nuclear reactions involved in explosive nucleosynthesis. These programs conduct experiments both at the WNSL ESTU tandem and at radioactive beam facilities elsewhere (Oak Ridge, Michigan State, Argonne, TRIUMF, and Notre Dame).

The relativistic heavy ion group at WNSL participates in the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) and in the NA49 experiment at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics Research (CERN). Both these experiments search for signatures of quark-gluon plasma formation.

Outside users are very welcome to carry out experiments at WNSL either as independent research or in collaboration with WNSL staff. Contact R.F. Casten or the relevant WNSL research group.

WNSL is funded by the Department of Energy.