Romania's high-power laser delayed for the second time

The second bid for the construction of the high-power laser in Magurele near Bucharest was canceled at the beginning of April as the only offer submitted did not comply with the requirements in the task book, Profit.ro reported. The bid was meant to award a EUR 17.7 million contract, set to last 25 months. A consortium made up of Thales Optronique SAS (Freance), Thales Systems Romania, SEIV and Alsyom (France), and subcontractors ARDOP SAS and SDMS (France) entered the bid. This is the second bid held to award the contract, after the first one was canceled over legal errors that would have affected the bidding process or made the closing of the contract impossible, according to Profit.ro. The equipment of the Magurele high-power laser is made of two components: the first comprises of two high-power lasers – two arms of 10 petawatts each (where 10 petawatts represent 10% of the Sun’s power), and the second is a gamma radiation generator with performance characteristics, unique in the world. Last year, the European Commission approved the second phase of the Magurele project, directing over EUR 140 million from the European Regional Development Fund to the ongoing work at the giant laser project. The second phase of the ELI-NP project is co-financed by the 2014-2020 Operational Program Competitiveness. The construction work should be completed and the necessary equipment, including a high power laser system and a gamma ray system, should be installed by 2018. The Magurele laser project is one of the three pillars of the pan-European project ELI, which will become the world’s most advanced global structure destined to studies related to photon radiation with extreme characteristics. The other two centers, namely ELI-Beamlines and ELI-ALPS, will be built in the Czech Republic and Hungary. Romanian PM: Investments in Magurele high-power laser could generate EUR 600 mln turnover editor@romania-insider.com