Specific questions to be answered by the ESS-PP project:

• What would be the technical and environmental impact of a liquid target other than liquid mercury?
• What are the updated costs including the decommissioning (which was not included in the previous cost analysis)?
• What could be the legal framework and ownership policy of the facility?
• How would such a user facility be operated with maximum efficiency and maximum productivity for the users?
• How can we avoid the nationalisation (especially of the technical staff) as observed in many multinational facilities?

The ESS-PP project poses the unique chance that a wider community (represented by the different partners and observers but also by the neutron user association ENSA) has the possibility of an early input into the shaping of their future top-tier neutron facility.

A huge amount of work has been done in the past by more than hundred experts from diverse fields which resulted then in a very detailed project description of ESS including developments in science and technology, a scientific case, user support, financing, detailed layouts of the source, instruments and support infrastructure.

The project is perfectly ready to be realised from a scientific and technical standpoint, however the preparatory phase project enables a deeper investigation in certain aspects where governments and funding bodies would like to have a more detailed assessment, such as the legal structure of the infrastructure, governance aspects, a thorough costing including decommissioning and environmental, health and safety issues.