Another Three Years of Funding for HBS Development
02.11.2020
The development of compact, accelerator-based high-brilliance neutron sources (HBS) represents a promising alternative for small and medium-sized neutron research facilities. These novel sources do not require research reactors or high-energy spallation sources for the production of neutrons, since they efficiently use nuclear processes at low accelerator energies.
In the initial stage, the BMBF, along with the Helmholtz Centres Geesthacht, GSI and Forschungszentrum Jülich, funded the development of these neutron sources with almost € 1 million. This funding has now been approved for another three years within the framework of the Helmholtz’s Innovation Pool Projects in the Research Field Matter. As a result, the project will have approximately a further € 1.5 million available for research and development from 2021-2023.
The scientists involved in the projects from Forschungszentrum Jülich, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, GSI / Helmholtz Institute Mainz and the new partner of Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf plan to jointly develop central components and concepts for accelerator technology, neutron target and moderation, beam extraction and instrumentation. The aim of the project is to enable the technological realization of a novel accelerator-based neutron source in Germany.
“This gives us a solid base for our work in the years to come and we will be able to prepare the Technical Design Report for the realization of this type of source and hopefully also make progress with the development of a prototype for the next generation of neutron sources worldwide”, says Project Leader Dr. Thomas Gutberlet from JCNS.
Half of the funding is provided by the BMBF and half by the participating Helmholtz Centres via the Innovation Pool.