European Spallation Source (ESS) is the world’s most powerful neutron source under construction in Lund (Sweden), which will offer about 4000 beam days annually to scientists from Europe when built to its planned capacity of 22 instruments. Even with just the 15 instruments to be built within the ESS construction scope, ESS will greatly increase the capacity of the European network of neutron sources by opening new opportunities for breakthrough research with neutrons thanks to the unprecedented neutron beam brightness accompanied by world-class instrumentation and novel experimental methods developed for the long-pulse neutron source.
The Czech Republic became one of the 13 founding members of the ESS ERIC consortium in 2015 with the planned 2% contribution to the ESS construction, which should ensure a proportional share of beam capacity for Czech users after ESS is put into operation. This step is of great importance for the Czech user community when considering the fading capacity of neutron sources in Europe: several research reactors which used to serve our user community were shut down recently, while others are approaching the end of their lifetime, including the research reactor LVR-15 in Řež and ILL Grenoble.
In-kind contributions make a significant part of the ESS construction. The Nuclear Physics Institute, CAS (NPI) in Řež has the task of implementing several of these contributions:
The supply of systems for the ESS target station includes the helium cooling loop, water cooling of the target and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) of the target station building. These technologies have already been delivered, and their installation is being finalized.
NPI, together with Helmholtz Zentrum Hereon in Geesthacht, develops and builds one of the neutron scattering instruments – the Beamline for European Materials Engineering Research (BEER). According to the current schedule, BEER is supposed to be ready for hot commissioning in early 2024 and enter into the user regime during the ESS operation ramp-up between 2025 and 2027. BEER has been developed in cooperation with neutron users from the material research and engineering areas. On the Czech side, teams from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University and the Institute of Physics, CAS, largely contributed to the instrument concept and actively participated in the development of a sample environment for in-situ measurements and novel methods to be tested during early operation. Such a collaboration is vitally important for a successful start of the user program at BEER, and neutron users are encouraged to collaborate with the instrument team on the preparation of the early operation program.
The contribution of the Czech Republic to the ESS construction has been supported by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports through the project of large infrastructure ESS Scandinavia-CZ (project LM2018111) and by EU Structural Funds (Reg. No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001794).