The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, and the rector of the University of Granada, Pilar Aranda, yesterday laid the first stone of the future UGR-DONES research centre. This building will serve to support and reinforce the parent project, the construction of the IFMIF-DONES particle accelerator.

Moreno stressed that IFMIF-DONES has become “one of the milestones in the transformation process of Andalusia” due to the importance and significance of the future infrastructure, which will identify and examine the different materials to be used in future fusion power plants.

For his part, Aranda emphasised the cooperation between institutions, which has made it possible to promote the great scientific project of the particle accelerator and the importance of “joining forces”.

The vice-rector for Research and Transfer, Enrique Herrera, explained that in the UGR-Dones complex there will be scientific groups working on the development of new materials, applying their research to one of the key objectives of the future IFMIF-DONES: to determine which materials are the most resistant to radiation and extreme conditions that occur in nuclear fusion reactions.

The director of the IFMIF-DONES España Consortium, Ángel Ibarra, expressed his satisfaction with the laying of this first stone and the broad support of institutional representatives who participated in the event, such as the Secretary General for Research of the Ministry of Science and Innovation, Raquel Yotti; the mayors of Escúzar and Granada, Antonio Arrabal and Francisco Cuenca; the Regional Minister for University, Research and Innovation, José Carlos Gómez Villamandos; the Regional Minister for Development, Territorial Planning and Housing, Marifrán Carazo; and the President of the Granada Provincial Council, José Entrena, among others.

The new university complex, of 5,500 square metres, will be made up of three buildings, will cost 7.8 million euros and will have a completion period of ten months.