Scientific and Participation Success for IMOH 2024 Conference

From 15 to 17 October, the BCMaterials headquarters hosted the second edition of the ‘IMOH 2024, 2nd International Meeting on Challenges and Opportunities for HiCANS’ congress, dedicated to neutron science and industry. More than 80 scientists from Europe, America and Asia examined the evolution of projects and ideas for the construction of HiCANS (High Current Accelerator-driven Neutron Sources). These medium-sized facilities are set to revolutionise neutron testing in materials science. The aim is for them to be a complement to classic neutron sources, such as spallation sources or nuclear reactors, offering a more economical and accessible option for scientific experiments.

BCMaterials, ESS Bilbao, CFM/MPC and Ineustar have been the organisers of this second edition. The success of the first event, held in 2022, made it necessary to monitor the evolution of this technology, which includes projects such as ‘Argitu’, from ESS Bilbao, to build a HiCANS, in the Basque Country.

Projects updates

Thus, the first day of the congress was dedicated to learning about the update of the HiCANS technology, through presentations such as those by Mario Pérez, executive director of ESS Bilbao; Thomas Gutberlet, director of the HiCANS HBS project at the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science, in Germany; or Arnaud Desmedt, from the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin – LLB, in France, with the ICONE project.

On the second day, IMOH 2024 focused its attention on presentations related to the state of the art of neutron sciences. Among the outstanding plenary and invited lectures were those of Astrid Schneidewind (Jülich Centre for Neutron Science), María Teresa Fernández Díaz, president of the Spanish Society of Neutron Techniques (SETN); Giovanna Fragneto, scientific director of the European Spallation Source – ESS; and Juan José Gómez Cadenas (DIPC- Donostia International Physics Center), among others.

Science and industry for HiCANS

The scientific industry, vital for the technological development of HiCANS, was the protagonist of the third and last day of IMOH 2024. In addition to various presentations, the round table “The potential of industry-academia collaboration in the development of technologies for HiCANS” was held, moderated by Erik Fernández, director of Ineustar, with the participation of Fiamma García-Toriello (ESS Bilbao), Pedro Noguera (AVS), Peter Boeni (Swiss Neutronics) and Marité Cárdenas (Instituto Biofisika).

12 plenary and invited talks, 22 oral presentations, 2 flash sessions and two poster sessions made up the intense programme of IMOH 2024. The excellent result of the conference encourages the organising entities to consider a third edition for 2026.

Important institutional and corporate support

The second edition of IMOH enjoyed significant institutional support. In addition to the support for the event by the Basque Government's Department of Education, the opening session was attended by the Deputy Minister of Universities and Research, Adolfo Morais; as well as a representative from the UPV/EHU, through David Hoyos, director of EHU Gune.

The congress also had the support of sponsorship from Swiss Neutronics, Nortemecánica, AVS, Fundación Biofisika, Parke Euskadi, Suprasys and Thune Eureka.