Researchers in the US have begun removing RHIC components to build the world's only fully polarized electron-ion collider.
Engineers in the US have recently started dismantling the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in order to repurpose its infrastructure and build the world’s only fully polarized Electron-Ion Collider .
In February 2026, the RHIC, which was the world’s second-highest-energy heavy-ion collider, completed its 25th and final run at the US Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory . The milestone signaled the beginning of a six-year-transformation to build what will become the world’s only fully polarized electron-ion collider , a type of particle accelerator designed to probe the deepest structure of matter.
The EIC is supported by the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Abhay Deshpande, PhD, BNL associate laboratory director for nuclear and particle physics and science director for the EIC, noted the EIC marks a major step forward in exploring matter and the strongest force in nature. “Even as one chapter ends, we are excited about what is to come,” Deshpande added.
From RHIC to EICThe EIC will be built by reusing major components of RHIC, including its 2.4-mile-circumference tunnel, one of its superconducting-magnet ion storage rings, and other accelerator and detector equipment. This approach is expected to deliver significant cost savings while speeding up construction timelines. The team will require a substantial amount of space to removed, repurposed and store roughly 6,500 components.
“The start of RHIC equipment removal marks a major step toward building the EIC and continuing RHIC’s tradition of groundbreaking discovery,” Jim Yeck, project director at EIC, pointed out.
Some major components of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider will be reused for the Electron-Ion Collider .Credit: Valerie A. Lentz / Brookhaven National Laboratory
In order to make space for a new electron storage ring, one of RHIC’s two rings of superconducting magnets will be dismantled entirely. The engineering team will additionally remove the cryogenic systems, radiofrequency equipment, as well as other accelerator components that are no longer needed.
The process will unfold sector by sector around the ring, allowing installation of new EIC systems to begin even as teardown continues. At the same time, RHIC’s massive detectors, some weighing tens of tons, will also be dismantled.
“We have an excellent group of highly skilled engineers, technicians, riggers, and safety personnel with the technical skills and experience needed to carry out these challenging tasks,” Raymond Fliller, PhD, head of the Environmental Safety, Security, Health and Quality Assurance Division within BNL, said.
Rebuilding a colliderThe engineers will also take apart the long-running STAR detector, a tracker that captured RHIC’s first collisions in 2000, as well as the newer sPHENIX detector. A new detector, ePIC, will be built, in their place, to analyze collisions at the EIC.
“Also to be removed are 30 solid steel plates leftover from PHENIX, one of RHIC’s original detectors, which was located where sPHENIX now sits,” BNL said. “The 15 plates on each side of the interaction region are each made of five sections that are four or eight inches thick, weighing in at 40 or 80 tons, respectively.”
Meanwhile, parts of sPHENIX, a state-of-the-art particle detector, like its outer hadronic calorimeter, will be reused in the new detector. This reflects a broader effort to reuse high-value components wherever possible.
Group photo from STAR collaboration meeting held March 2-6.Credit: Kevin Coughlin / Brookhaven National Laboratory
BNL said that smaller systems, like power supplies, housings, and electronics, are being cataloged for reuse, recycling, or redistribution to partner institutions.
“We are excited to be preparing for the future installation of the EIC,” David Chan, head of the Infrastructure and Technical Support Division within BNL’s Collider-Accelerator Department, said in a press release. “The start of equipment removal is one of the first steps in building the EIC within the existing facility and marks an important milestone in this process,” he added.
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