European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (European XFEL)

The European XFEL, an X-ray free-electron laser currently under construction in the Hamburg area, will be an international research facility of superlatives: 27 000 X-ray flashes per second and a brilliance that is a billion times higher than that of the best conventional X-ray sources will open up completely new opportunities for science. With construction and commissioning costs of 1.15 billion euro (at 2005 price levels) and a total length of 3.4 kilometers, the European XFEL is one of the largest and most ambitious European research projects to date. The facility will open to users in 2017.