 The Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory was established in 1965, with a $2.5 Million grant from the United States Atomic Energy Commission providing the funding for a new 15 MeV Tandem Van de Graaff accelerator as well as a 15 MeV Cyclotron.After three years of construction and testing, the new accelerator facility became operational in December 1968.Henry Newson, a nuclear physics professor at Duke University, was responsible for the proposal, was the original proponent of combining the efforts of the three universities, and served as the first director of the new laboratory.