3 May (NucNet): The UK has joined a new 1.6 billion euros (2 billion US dollars) international project whose aims include the development of nuclear fusion energy as “a long-term solution to dealing with climate change”, it was announced today.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) said it had signed an agreement that makes the UK an associate member of the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (Fair), which is under construction next to the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt, Germany.
The STFC said the country’s new member status at the project means UK nuclear physics scientists will have a chance to work “at the cutting edge” in the development of new and innovative applications, including the development of nuclear fusion energy.
A statement said Fair is intended to be “the most impressive and advanced nuclear physics research facility in the world” and will become to nuclear physics what the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is to particle physics.
Scientists at the project will also work on new techniques for cancer therapy and the study of the high-radiation conditions found in space, which will be taken into account in future manned space missions.
Fair will be the world’s most important nuclear physics research facility for many years to come making this “a very exciting time” to be involved in this area of research, a spokesman said.
Experiments are on track to begin later this decade. Once fully complete, Fair will have a high energy and high intensity accelerator complex, with several storage rings and 3.5km of beam-lines, and will provide antiproton and ion beams with unprecedented intensity and quality.
Fair will be funded 75 percent by Germany and 25 percent by other collaborating countries, including Russia and India, in addition to other European states.
For more information about Fair: http://www.fair-center.eu
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