EU structural funds enlarge Czech Republic’s contribution to ESS

On 19 October 2016, the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (NPI) located in Řež organized an event to provide an overview of the Czech participation in the ESS project. During the event, the new EU Structural Funds project “European Spallation Source - participation of the Czech Republic – Operational Programme” was launched.

Thanks to these additional EU structural funds, the Czech Republic, a founding member of ESS, will reach a total contribution of 2% to the ESS construction costs, both in-kind and in-cash. Through the newly launched project, NPI will contribute to the ESS Target cooling technologies. Specifically, it will take part in the development of the target helium cooling system, the primary water cooling systems, intermediate water cooling systems, and to the target station complete heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC).
Part of the structural funds will be invested in quality research and development programmes of experimental methods for characterization of processes in engineering materials and novel TOF 3D neutron diffraction/imaging methods for engineering materials research.

In addition to the contribution to the ESS Target cooling technology, the Czech Republic is involved in the construction of the ESS Instrument BEER - Beamline for European Engineering Materials Research, developed in collaboration with Helmholtz-Centre Geesthacht (HZG) in Germany.