European Spallation Source

Industry invited to help ESS build the future

ESS PPP asks " What can industry do for the ESS...and what can the ESS do for industry?"

A major industry meeting is being held next month to open up communication channels between the European Spallation Source project and its industrial partners.

As the ESS project gathers momentum it is vital that the right partners are found to assist with the design, building and operation of the facility, which is to be built in Lund, Sweden.

At the same time, the project co-ordinators are keen to start discussions with potential industrial partners interested in finding out more about spallation technology and how the ESS might assist them in advancing their own research and development projects.

The one-day meeting is being held on 19 February 2010, at the Royal Library, in Copenhagen. The event will include invited talks, working groups and open discussions on how industry can get involved in the ESS project.

ESS will need expertise in the fields of civil engineering, accelerator technology, advanced handling and high precision large-scale mechanical engineering, as well as other services and infrastructures.

Professor Bob Cywinski, spokesperson for the ESS Preparatory Phase Project, says: "Over €1 billion of contracts may soon be available for Europe-wide competitive tender. That's a huge range of opportunities and we want to ensure that we are talking to the right companies to supply the expertise that we need."

In addition to participating in the construction of ESS, European industry will also be able to exploit the European Spallation Source, once complete,  in materials research and development .  across all disciplines, including engineering, chemistry, pharmacology, energy and the environment.

"With such a broad spectrum of opportunities available," says Prof. Cywinski,  "it is very important that we start talking to our industrial partners now, so that as the ESS becomes operational we are able to immediately exploit this facility for the benefit of advanced European scientific and technological industries ."

Click here for more information about the Industry Day programme

Click here to register for the event

What is ESS?

The European Spallation Neutron Source (ESS) is a project to design and construct a next generation facility for research with neutrons. Neutrons can see inside the material: they penetrate deep into matter, and reveal "where atoms are and what atoms do". ESS will be the brightest source of neutrons that will be used for experiments to look inside the materials. It will be the best neutron source world-wide for practically all classes of instruments. ESS will provide much more intensity than the present neutron sources, brighter neutrons beams that, with a suite of more than 40 neutron scattering instruments, will enable scientist of all disciplines to investigate materials in situ, in vivo, in real time and for real life applications. This will have enormous positive consequences for society, industry and technology. It will also retain and strengthen Europe’s lead in neutron science in quality and quantity.

An early all-encompassing and ambitious version of the ESS project was elaborated in detail by a consortium of 18 European laboratories between 2000 and 2003 with the technical goal to outperform the two other 3rd generation neutron source projects under construction in the USA (SNS) and Japan (J PARC).

The current ESS proposal, as discussed and approved by the ESFRI expert group and endorsed by ENSA, the European user organisation, takes advantage of recent experience and retains the most innovative, cost-effective and lowest technical risk aspects of the original larger project.

 

 

What is the Preparatory Phase?

The ESS Preparatory Phase (ESS-PP) project has the overall goal to pave the way to and to facilitate a site decision and a final decision to construct and to operate ESS. Presently, there are three governments (Spanish, Swedish and Hungarian) firmly committed to host ESS in their own country. While the process for reaching an agreement is mainly political and lobbied for by the site contenders, the ESS-PP will have a catalyzing effect for a decision and provide data for a decision as well as for the realisation phase. ESS-PP will concentrate on the site independent aspects while the site specific aspects will be mainly covered by the site contenders.

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