A £400M scientific research facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory is running at two thirds capacity because of a lack of Government cash.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (Case) confirmed the Isis Neutron Source at the Harwell facility operates for only 120 days a year instead of the 180 target because of a funding shortfall.

It is estimated it would cost £3.4m a year to operate for another 60 days annually.

Imran Khan, of Case, said: “I suspect that hundreds of important scientific experiments throughout the UK are being dropped because of the lack of funding from the Government.”

The Isis facility uses intense beams of neutrons, which are uncharged constituents of atoms, to investigate how complex materials are constituted.

Isis owner, the Government agency Science and Technology Facilities Council, (STFC), said it was developing a new funding model that aimed to provide “greater clarity and certainty for future years”.