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The MagLab is funded by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida.

By the Numbers

How many world records we hold, how much we pay for electricity and other nifty numbers.

Number of MagLab employees (2017) 715
Percentage of employees who are postdocs, grad students or undergrad students 39
Number of countries represented by MagLab staff 50
Total investment in infrastructure from all budget sources $192 million
FY 2017 Funding $53,491,652
Percentage of budget funded by the National Science Foundation 67
Percentage funded by the state of Florida 23
Amount of return to state of Florida projected for each dollar invested in the lab $6.57
Square footage (all three branches) 440,000
Helium and nitrogen bill1 at the lab's Tallahassee headquarters (2017) $1,064,102
Annual electric bill at the lab's Tallahassee headquarters (2017) $4 million
Percentage of that bill attributable to magnet use (2017) 67
Percentage of the electricity provided to all Tallahassee residences and businesses that is consumed by the MagLab (2017) 8
Power supply, in megawatts, available at the lab's Tallahassee facility 56
Capacity, in megawatts, of the motor generator that powers the pulsed magnets at the lab's Los Alamos National Laboratory site 1,430
Average monthly electricity use, in kilowatthours, of average U.S. home 920
Average monthly electricity consumption of magnets at the MagLab (2017) 5.0 million kwH
Average monthly electricity use, in kilowatthours, of MagLab's DC Field Facility in Tallahassee (2017) 6,572,000
Magnetic field, measured in tesla2, generated by the lab's hybrid magnet, which creates the most powerful sustained magnetic field in the world 45
Weight, in tons, of this magnet 35
Miles of superconducting wire coiling through this magnet 4
Amount of power, in megawatts, required to operate this magnet 33
Amount of time, in weeks, required to cool the magnet down from room temperature to its operating temperature of -452°F (-269°C) 6
Amount of chilled water, in liters per second, required to keep the magnet cool 400
Speed (in mph) at which chilled water is run through resistive magnets to keep them cool 45
Magnetic field strength, in tesla, of the strongest non-destructive magnet in the world, a pulsed magnet located at our Pulsed Field Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory 100.75
Amount of pressure found 12 feet under water, in pounds per square inch (psi) 6
Amount of pressure (in psi) sustained by the lab's 100.75 tesla pulsed magnet 200,000
Length of time, in milliseconds, that the 100.75 tesla multi-shot is operated, so as to avoid an explosion (One millisecond = 1/1,000 of a second) 15
Length of time, in microseconds, that the lab's 300 tesla single turn magnet is operated, before exploding – as it is designed to do! (One microsecond = 1/1,000,000 of a second 6
Coldest temperature ever recorded on Earth (in nature) -89°C
(-129°F)
Number of times per second that hydrogen atoms spin in our 900 MHz NMR magnet 900,000,000
Number of scientists from across the globe using the MagLab facilities every year (2021) 1,615
Number of visitors attending the MagLab's annual Open House (2020) 10,000+
Number of K-12 students who participated in a tour or classroom outreach (2017) 10,000
Number of world records (as of 2022) 17

1Liquid helium and liquid nitrogen are used to keep our superconducting magnets at the very cold temperature they require in order to operate.
2A tesla is a measure of magnetic field strength. The Earth's magnetic field is 1/20,000 (.00005) of a tesla.


Last modified on 30 November 2022