The European Spallation Source (ESS) under construction in Lund will be the world’s most powerful facility for research using neutron beams when it comes into full operation early in the next decade. The neutrons will be released from a rotating tungsten target when it is hit by 2 GeV protons emerging from a 5 MW superconducting linac. Although driven by the neutron-scattering community, the project will offer unique opportunities for experiments in fundamental neutron physics, thanks to its high integrated neutron flux. There are also plans to use the huge amount of neutrinos produced at the spallation target for neutrino physics.
Taking charge of the project as it enters its construction phase is Jim Yeck, who will be well known particle physicists in the US. In the past he led the successful construction of the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider at Brookhaven and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole, as well as the important US contribution to the LHC accelerator and the ATLAS and CMS experiments.