450 scientists have laid the technical foundation for the ESS research centre

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450 scientists and engineers from 46 research institutions in 17 countries have joined forces to develop the technical design of the future European Spallation Source research centre. The completion of the design is a scientific and technical milestone of the ESS project, allowing it to move forward with the construction of the ESS.

The ESS will be a facility for materials research and life science, based on the world’s most powerful neutron source. The ESS technical design will be based on highly advanced technology, including a high-power particle accelerator and unique, large-scale scientific instrumentation.

Over the past two years, around 450 scientists and engineers from 46 leading research institutions from across the world have participated in the development of the final technical design of the ESS, manifested in a 650 page Technical Design Report. The scientists and engineers represent 13 out of the ESS 17 Partner Countries, and also USA, Russia, Slovenia and Slovakia. The finalization of the technical design represents a milestone for the ESS project, marking its readiness to move forward with the construction.

- The finalisation of the technical design is a true milestone, says Patrik Carlsson, ESS Director for Accelerator & Target. The Technical Design Report demonstrates the fruits of the hundreds of people who over the past 20 years have brought the ESS project to where it is today. It is only with their combined efforts that we have been able to come up with technological solutions that will greatly improve the overall performance and efficiency compared to today‘s neutron sources.

- The high brightness of the ESS will significantly expand the scientific possibilities of neutron science, says Dimitri Argyriou, ESS Director for Science. With the formulation of highly relevant science drivers and a state-of-the-art reference instrument suite, we are on our way to shape the science of tomorrow.

- The Technical Design Report arrives one year after the ESS Conceptual Design report, containing the work, the studies, and the designs by around four times as many people as contributed to the conceptual design. Building a scientific laboratory that will be world-leading requires the combined efforts and joint thinking of a large number of experts, says Steve Peggs, executive editor of the ESS Technical Design Report.

The final technical design of the ESS comprises innovative achievements within many different areas:

The linear accelerator

The ESS 5 MW accelerator will be the world’s most powerful proton accelerator, and as such, a technical challenge in itself to design. Among the technical novelties is the usage of superconducting spoke accelerator cavities, which will be used for the first time in a particle accelerator. Spoke cavities open the possibility to use superconducting technology at relatively low speed, thus making the acceleration of low energy particles more energy efficient.

The target station concept

Since the neutrons used for the experiments are produced in the target station, the design of the target station is of vital importance to the future scientific opportunities and performance. ESS will use a novel design for spallation targets, consisting of a solid, rotating tungsten wheel. Since ESS will be the most powerful neutron source ever constructed, at 5 MW, the design of the target required a significant amount of design work. The chosen target concept will secure the best scientific performance combined with safety and minimum environmental impact.

The 22 neutron instruments

ESS will offer neutron beams of unparalleled brightness and in long pulses, which necessitate the development of new technology and approaches in the design of the 22 instruments. The high flux and unique time structure, in combination with an unmatched instrument flexibility, will make possible many investigations that are out of range today. The reference instrument suite gives an example of what can be achieved, although the instruments that will actually be built will be chosen in an ongoing process involving the wider science community.

Scientists and engineers from the following research institutions have contributed to the ESS Technical Design Report:

European Spallation Source ESS AB, Lund Sweden

Aarhus University, Denmark

Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies alternatives (CEA), Saclay/Paris, France

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Firenze, Italy

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Messina, Italy

Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Milano, Italy

Control System Laboratory (Cosylab), Slovenia

Copenhagen University, Denmark

Czech Technical University, Prague, the Czech Republic

Denmark Technical University (DTU), Roskilde, Denmark

Deutsches Elektronen-Synkrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland

European Spallation Source Bilbao, Spain

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Materialien und Energie, Berlin, Germany

Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany

Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Germany

Institute for High-Energy Physics (IHEP), Protvino, Russia

Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), Halden/Oslo, Norway

Institut Laue-Langevin, Grenoble, France

Institute of Nuclear Techniques, Budapest, Hungary

Institut de Physique Nucléaire (IPN), Paris Orsay, France

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Catania and Legnaro, Italy

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, Saclay/Paris, France

Linköping University, Sweden

Lund Technical University, Sweden

Lund University, Sweden

MAX IV Laboratory, Lund, Sweden

Mid Sweden University, Sweden

Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark

Nuclear Physics Institute ASCR, Prague, the Czech Republic

Paul Scherrer Institute, Zürich, Switzerland

Research Centre Rez/Prague, the Czech Republic

Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen, Germany

Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom

Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom

Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy

Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovakia

Technical University Delft, the Netherlands

Technische Universität München, Germany

Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Virginia, USA

University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

University of Southern Denmark, Denmark

University of Tartu, Estonia

Uppsala University, Sweden

      

For more information, please contact:

Marianne Ekdahl, Communications Officer Press & Politics, ESS. E-mail marianne.ekdahl@esss.se. Tel. 46 (0)46 888 30 66

     

ESS IN SHORT:

The European Spallation Source – the next generation facility for materials research and life science

The European Spallation Source (ESS) will be a multi-disciplinary research laboratory based on the world’s most powerful neutron source. ESS can be likened to a large microscope, where neutrons are used instead of light to study materials – ranging from polymers and pharmaceuticals to membranes and molecules – to gain knowledge about their structure and function. ESS will be around 30 times brighter than existing facilities, opening up new possibilities for researchers in for example health, chemistry, fundamental physics, environment, climate, energy, transport sciences and cultural heritage.

ESS is an intergovernmental research infrastructure project, and it will be built in Lund in southern Scandinavia. Currently 17 European countries are Partners in the ESS project, and will take part in the construction, financing and operation of the ESS. The Partner Countries are: Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

The European Spallation Source ESS AB is a state-owned limited liability company, today owned by the host countries Sweden and Denmark. ESS AB is currently working on finalizing the ESS technical design, planning the future research at ESS, preparing for construction, and planning the future international ESS organisation. This is done in collaboration with a large number of Partner Laboratories, research institutes, and universities around the world. The ground-break is planned for 2014, the first neutrons will be produced in 2019 and the facility will be fully operational around 2025.

ESS is expected to support a user community of at least 5000 European researchers and will have great strategic importance for the development of the European Research Area. Near by there will be complementary laboratories, such as the synchrotron MAX IV in Lund and XFEL and PETRAIII in Hamburg.

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