Project Progress

HighNESS began in October 2020, and will continue for 36 months, until September 2023. The project is divided into 10 work packages, each of which has its own concrete goals (deliverables) with various points of progress (milestones) along the way.

In a spallation neutron source, such as the European Spallation Source (ESS), an accelerator drives particles known as protons at near the speed of light into a rotating target. In the nuclei of the atoms in this target, neutrons are liberated by the incoming protons before being reduced to a precise range of speeds by a device called a moderator.

The moderator is therefore the source of neutrons, although to reach the scientific experiments the particles must be transmitted by a neutron reflector.