ESS Project moving ahead fast: Czech Republic and Netherlands join today
The Czech Republic and the Netherlands were today welcomed as Partner Countries in the European Spallation Source project.
The decision was taken at the fourth ESS international Steering Committee meeting, held in the Turning Torso in Malmö, Sweden. The Czech Republic and the Netherlands will be the 15th and 16th Partner Countries, and will be represented in the Steering Committee at its next meeting.
At today's meeting, Colin Carlile was appointed CEO and Director-General for ESS AB until 2013. Lars Börjesson, Secretary-General for Research Infrastructure in the Swedish Research Council, was elected Chairman of the Steering Committee.
- I am very pleased by the progress and the positive spirit of this fourth meeting of the ESS international Steering Committee. The meeting shows that the ESS project is definitely moving ahead fast, says Colin Carlile, ESS Director-General.
- The growing number of Partner Countries also shows the scientific attractiveness of the ESS. It is particularly appropriate that the Czech Republic now joins the ESS, since the Czech Government, during its EU Presidency last spring, was a strong driving force to achieve a decision on the ESS siting.
Both the Netherlands and the Czech Republic have an extensive expert base in neutron-based science, through the Reactor Institute at Delft Technical University and at the Rez Neutron Physics Laboratory, near Prague.
In a particular point on the agenda, the Steering Committee reviewed the rapid progress with the Design Update of the ESS accelerator. Information was also given on the continuous expansion of the central scientific team in the Accelerator Division and the building up of the international technical collaborations.
- The ESS accelerator design will benefit from the vast expertise in European universities and institutes, and I am particularly satisfied to be able to present the outline of this large collaborative effort today, says Mats Lindroos, Head of the ESS Accelerator Division.
For more information, please contact:
Colin Carlile, ESS AB Director-General. E-mail colin.carlile@esss.se, Tel. +46-(0)46-222 83 02
Marianne Ekdahl, Communications Officer. E-mail marianne.ekdahl@esss.se, Tel. +46-(0)46-222 83 89
Roger Eriksson, Communications Officer. E-mail roger.eriksson@esss.se, Tel. +46-(0)46-222 67 18
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 up to 100 times better than existing facilities, opening up new possibilities for researchers in for example health, environment, climate, energy, transport sciences and cultural heritage.
ESS is an intergovernmental project resembling CERN in Geneva, and it will be built in Lund in southern Scandinavia. At least sixteen European countries will take part in the construction, financing and operation of the ESS. Sweden and Denmark will co-host the ESS and cover 50 percent of the 1,4 B€ investment costs and 20 percent of the operating costs together with the Nordic and Baltic states.
The European Spallation Source ESS AB is a public limited company, today owned by the Swedish State. ESS AB is planning the future international ESS organisation. Building is expected to start around 2013, the first neutrons to be produced in 2019 and the facility to be fully operational around 2025.
ESS will support a user community of 5000 researchers and will have great strategic importance for the development of the European Research Area. Lund and the Malmö-Copenhagen region have excellent preconditions to attract leading scientists: several large universities, a broad research-based industry, high-quality infrastructure, an English-speaking population and world-class research capabilities in, among other areas, biotech and nano technology. Near by there will be complementary laboratories, such as the synchrotron MAX IV in Lund and XFEL and PETRAIII in Hamburg.
ESS has adopted the goal that the facility will be carbon dioxide neutral, by means of an energy conservation strategy, the use of renewable sources of electricity, and the reuse of excess heat through the Lund district heating and cooling system. ESS built in Lund will be the first large-scale scientific facility operating under this principle, and it will be a demonstration project for other future facilities.
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