Page 177 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

Chapter 7 - Maturity
7.2 The ESRF
During the creation of the European Science Foundation (ESF) in 1975, Maier-Leibnitz had the idea of satisfying the desires
of the scientific community by making the construction of a European machine producing intense beams of X-rays the subject for study by the recently born ESF. After many delays the idea was extensively developed, giving rise to the Black and the Blue Books100.
It would only materialise in February 1984 when Brian Fender, then Director of the ILL, formulated the proposal to locate the European synchrotron radiation source on the ILL site. Previous arguments, in 1979 and 1982, for the construction of the source had been developed and well received. In a report of 21 February 1984 (in appendix 5) Fender presented the scientific and economic arguments for an installation beside the reactor of the ILL. Finally this reasoning was accepted and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) was created on the site of the ILL and the EMBL.
Construction began in 1988, and the first users had access to the machine in 1994. The point made by Fender that the ESRF should not be a mere appendage of the ILL has been fully taken into account, and the partners who fund the ESRF are not exactly the
100 The Black Book: “Synchrotron Radiation, a Perspective View for Europe” (1975) Ed. The European Science Foundation, Strasbourg; The Blue Book “European Synchrotron Radiation Facility: The Feasibility Study” (1979), Ed. The European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, ISBN 2-903148-01-5.
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