Project summary
The Randers-Riste Center (RRC) concerns the establishment of a neutron science and
knowledge exchange centre at Kjeller in connection to the JEEP II research reactor. This
could enable Norway to be in the forefront of research areas of the highest strategic priority:
energy, environment and health, with advanced materials science underpinning these
priorities. This is based on the fact the research reactor JEEP II is presently one of the largest
experimental facilities in Norway and unique in the sense that it is the only Nordic neutron
facility.
RRC has been proposed and outlined in two earlier reports; from the Research Council and
NIFU STEP. The realization of this center can be based on the technical experience, skills and
training thr oughout two generations of Norwegian scientists and engineers in the field. The
esteemed traditions here are reflected in the proposed name for the centre: Gunnar Randers,
the instigator of the realization of JEEP in 1951 as the 6th country in the world w ith a nuclear
reactor and the first country outside the big powers; and Tormod Riste who was a pioneer in
the development of experimental techniques as well as fundamental discoveries using
neutrons.
It has recently been decided that the European Spallati on Source (ESS) will be located in
Lund in Sweden. It will be denoted the European Spallation Source Scandinavia (ESSS).
ESSS will be the world-leading research facility using neutrons for materials research and life
science. RRC could become a key Scandi navian node to ESSS and part of an "in-kind"
contribution from Norway in connection with a membership. It is therefore of outmost
importance to have the RRC set up so that it becomes a key Scandinavian adjunct to the ESS
in Lund.