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An ambitious plan for a powerful neutron facility in Europe has been reawakened by a show of interest from Sweden. There are as yet no promises that the facility will be built — let alone a decision on where — but Sweden's move has fuelled hope in the 5,000-strong European neutron community that the project will finally go ahead.
Europe announced plans in 1992 to build the European Spallation Source (ESS), a facility designed to be the most powerful neutron source in the world. The ESS would produce neutrons by accelerating protons at a heavy metal target — such neutrons can be used to probe materials from proteins to plastic and steel. Although other neutron sources are planned in the United States and Japan, the ESS would be more powerful and flexible than these.
By 2002 the technical plans were finalized, but in 2003 both Germany and Britain withdrew support, in a move that seemed to kill off the €1.5-billion (US$1.8-billion) project (see Nature 421, 563; 200310.1038/421563b).
On 16 July, the Swedish government asked former minister of finance, Allan Larsson, to review the possibility of hosting the facility. Larsson has a one-year mandate to garner support for the project — or a scaled-down version — from European governments, science agencies and industry. If he succeeds, next summer Sweden will submit a formal bid.
“I am absolutely delighted,” says Bob Cywinski, a physicist at the University of Leeds, UK, and a long-time lobbyist for a Yorkshire site for the ESS. “Of course I'd favour it being built in Britain, but Sweden's move will definitely dispel the notion that the ESS is a dead project.” At the same time, an umbrella organization —the European Spallation Source Initiative — is being set up in Grenoble, France, to oversee the project.
There are other contenders for hosting the site, however. Hungary is expected to come up with a formal bid later this year. And Britain, which operates what is currently the world's most intense neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, may also remain an option.
It would take about ten years to build the ESS, so advocates are pressing for a decision to be made on its location as soon as possible. “We could start building tomorrow,” says Cywinski.
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Schiermeier, Q. Swedish enthusiasm peps up plans for neutron source. Nature 430, 493 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/430493b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/430493b
