An investment of half a billion euros for a project that is an innovative challenge: to develop a super accelerator of subatomic plasma particles capable of obtaining energies higher than those achieved by current accelerators to be used in industry, in the pharmaceutical sector and in the biomedical. All through a system in which reduced costs are combined with compact but highly efficient tools.
A cutting-edge project
This is what the project called EuPRAXIA (European Plasma Research Accelerator with eXcellence In Applications) foresees an investment of approximately 500 million by the European Strategic Forum for ESFRI Research Infrastructures, of which 108 by the Ministry of University and Research. To carry it out, Enea and the researchers of the Frascati center, the INFN which is the leader, the Cnr, the universities of Rome Sapienza and Tor Vergata and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste.
Between research, medicine and biotechnology
Particle accelerators, as the experts remark, are born as a driving force for the progress of science: “In addition to providing a sophisticated instrument for the investigation of matter and the universe – they clarify from Enea – they are used in various sectors of basic research and widely spread in application fields, such as industry and biomedicine ».
Reduced costs and efficiency
“This project responds to the growing need to have small accelerators – explains Federico Nguyen, researcher at the Theory, Simulation and Modeling Laboratory of Enea -, for a more widespread, widespread use and simpler management, with more performing performances. , the possibility of new application areas and lower construction, maintenance and personnel costs compared to the approximately 30,000 models in operation ».
The starting point
Enea researchers have been working for some time on the project that involves the production of a “compact source of high-resolution laser light based on compact acceleration of electrons”. “Now we are at the design phase, in the sense that we are working on the technical project – adds the researcher -. A conceptual project has already been delivered, that is the basic idea and we are working on the details for a more efficient and optimized possible technical realization ».