Deal signed on establishment of Turkish Accelerator Center

Turkey's Ankara University and Germany's Dresden National Research Center have signed an agreement to cooperate in establishment of the Turkish Accelerator Center which will carry out scientific researches similar with those carried out at the European Organization for Nuclear research (CERN) in Switzerland.

The agreement was signed by Ankara University Rector Professor Cemal Talug and Dresden National Research Center Director Professor Roland Sauerbrey. German Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan was also in attendance at the signing ceremony.

The Turkish Accelerator Center project is an inter-universities collaboration with 60 people under the coordination of Ankara University. The collaboration includes 10 Turkish universities (Ankara, Bogazici, Dogus, Dumlupinar, Erciyes, Gazi, Istanbul, Nigde, S. Demirel and Uludag).

The center will consist of different scale electron, positron and proton accelerators to study experimental particle and nuclear physics and to produce synchrotron radiation and free electron lasers to use in basic and applied sciences.

Completion of the center at the Nuclear Research and Training Center of the Turkish Atomic Energy Agency (TAEK) in the Turkish capital Ankara will cover the period of 2010-2020.

Radioisotopes used in diagnosis of many diseases including cancer will be produced in the center. The facility will also produce radiopharmaceutical isotopes used as therapeutic substance. Scientific researches similar to those carried out at the CERN will also be carried out in the center.

/World Bulletin/