The DUALSPEC powder diffractometer at the NRU reactor of AECL Research is one of the most powerful instruments available for making neutron powder diffraction measurements. Its major feature is an 800-wire, curved, position-sensitive detector. The radius of the detector is 1.5 m and the angular separation of the wires is 0.1°. The detector thus collects data simultaneously over an 80° range of scattering angles. The complete range of scattering angles (120°) is covered by setting the detector in low and high angle positions. It may also be stepped between wires in steps as small as 0.01°. An oscillating radial collimator is positioned before the detector to suppress unwanted background from the sample environment. The specimen may be continuously rotated or may be oscillated through a specified angular range as the experiment requires and an XY translational table permits precise centering of the specimen. The maximum instrumental resolution (Δd/d) is 0.12 percent. A wide variety of monochromators are available, including a focusing monochromator for Si(531) planes. The monochromator take-off angle is continuously variable from 15° to 120°. The introduction of this state-of-the-art diffractometer as a user facility in mid-1992 led to a great increase inthe number of scientists wishing to utilize neutron powder diffraction methods as part of their research programs. But many were unfamiliar with the detailed application of the technique. As part of a continuing program to train students in the application of this neutron scattering; technique, the Neutron and Condensed Matter Science Branch of Chalk River Laboratories recently hosted a 2nd Workshop on Neutron Powder Diffraction. Sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Neutron Scattering, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and by AECL Research, the workshop was organized by Brian M. Powell (AECL) and by B.H. Torrie (Waterloo) on May 26–27 at Chalk River Laboratories. Twenty students from across Canada heard formal lectures on the technique and its applications each morning, while in the afternoons “hands-on” analysis of neutron diffraction data was carried out. The students also toured the DUALSPEC facility at the NRU reactor.