Amid the low landscape of southern Sweden, the most powerful research facility of its type is being created. It’s the European Spallation Source, or ESS, and it will help make our everyday lives better.
Comparable to a giant microscope, ESS will use neutrons to enable scientific breakthroughs with materials, energy, health and the environment. Think new and better computer chips, plastics, batteries, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and much more. Also, the facility’s unique capabilities will help scientists tackle some of the most complex challenges confronting science and medicine.
The construction of ESS is also pushing new boundaries. Explore how we – through a highly collaborative, values-based partnership with ESS – are delivering this world-leading and world-changing facility.
Hear from some of the world's leading thinkers on carbon and why reducing our emissions is important.
Excess heat from equipment used to drive ESS’ scientific activities will be recycled into the local district heating system, which will use it to warm homes and workplaces. If not for this innovative approach, the heat would be released into the air. This heat recycling will reduce carbon emissions and lower ESS’ operational costs.
To put ESS’ energy needs into perspective, the amount of electricity required yearly to operate the facility is about as much as the annual consumption of 40,000 apartments. ESS is committed to using renewable power production to be even greener.
Essential to the project's success is keeping everyone safe, healthy and well.
An important aspect has been reinforcing a culture in which site workers are encouraged to speak up and report any conditions or activities that may pose risks. Given the many potential hazards on any construction site, it's critical that all workers take responsibility for the safety of themselves and those around them. The most impactful safety reports from the previous day are highlighted by supervisors in their daily morning crew meetings.
This feedback loop created a culture of accountability for managers to take action, and for site workers to share their views. It has led to a long-term improvement in safety performance.
Creating the strong and stable structure necessary to support ESS’ science requires much concrete stuffed with enormous quantities of reinforcing bars, some 32 mm in diameter. Installing such huge bars in the high densities required is very complicated, so we’re testing the use of virtual and augmented reality to help improve safety, quality and efficiency.
It’s a two-step process: We use virtual reality, a computer-generated scenario that simulates a realistic experience, in an office to plan the detailed placement of the reinforcing bars, or rebar. Then at the physical work area, we test an app we developed for the HoloLens, an augmented reality headset in which computer-generated graphics are overlaid onto the actual physical world. With this app, a worker wearing the HoloLens can see a digital depiction of where the next rebar needs to go. This method ensures that the workers don't have to repeatedly divert their focus to check paper drawings.
On these websites, explore more about the construction of ESS and the world-leading neutron science it will enable.
https://europeanspallationsource.se/
https://europeanspallationsource.se/building-ess
