Name: European Spallation Source – participation of the Czech Republic
Institution: Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Coordinator: RNDr. Petr Lukáš, CSc.; lukas@ujf.cas.cz
Website
The ESS (European Spallation Source) is a project of a high-power pulsed neutron source, which is currently under construction in Lund, Sweden. The neutron beams from ESS will help to solve problems in many scientific fields, such as condensed matter physics (superconductivity and magnetic structures), chemistry (structures of surfactants), biology (effects of pharmaceuticals, structure, ordering and dynamics of DNA chains), material research (in-situ and in-operando studies of advanced materials, charge-discharge processes in batteries, hydrogen transport in fuel cells, phase transitions in new types of alloys with unique properties like high mechanical and thermal resistance and the shape memory effect) and cultural heritage (non-destructive imaging studies of historical artefacts). The in-kind contribution of the Czech Republic to the ESS’s construction – the diffractometer BEER (Beamline for European Engineering materials Research) – is a scientific instrument on one of the ESS beams. It is specially designed to provide detailed non-destructive characterisation of engineering materials and technological components in-situ and in-operando in the course of thermo-mechanical loading, under conditions simulating real industrial processes during manufacturing, processing and operation. The delivery of systems – a helium cooling loop, target water cooling systems and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) for the target station building – is another in-kind contribution of the Czech Republic to the ESS’s construction. These
contributions will provide researchers from the Czech Republic with 2% of the measuring capacities across the whole suite of ESS instruments. The Czech Republic became a Member State of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium ESS ERIC, and ESS Scandinavia-CZ will provide assistance to the Czech user community to access the ESS’s instruments after becoming operational. European Spallation Source ERIC as a legal entity participates in international networks through the strategic consortium LENS (League of Advanced European Neutron Sources), which will bring together key European research infrastructures running neutron sources and ensure their optimal exploitation by users from both the academic and commercial spheres.
