|
Report of the Visit to the Middle East by Prof.
M. Iaccarino, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, UNESCO and Prof.
H. Schopper, Chairman, International Interim Council
(September 25th to October 1st, 1999).
by Prof. Maurizio Iaccarino and Prof. Herwig Schopper
Paris and Geneva, October 12th, 1999.
The visit to Jordan, Egypt, Palestinian Authority and Israel
served to clarify the general and specific objectives of the SESAME project,
its international character and several technical and scientific issues (well
prepared by the Technical and Scientific Committees), to inform governments and
get their views and to obtain or confirm their intention to submit site
proposals. The outcome was very positive and the SESAME project made another
essential step towards its realisation.
Visit to Jordan
On Sunday, 26.09.99 Prof. Adnan Badran, President Philadelphia
University and former Deputy Director-General of UNESCO organised a meeting to
which members of the Higher Council for Science and Technology (HCST) and
representatives of universities and other organisations had been invited. The
meeting was quite successful since many objections against SESAME, partly due
to insufficient information, could be eliminated. These objections concerned
partly technical and scientific issues ('white elephant'), partly the
misconception that SESAME would be a national project. At the end of the
meeting there was consensus that Jordan should support the project and propose
a site.
After this meeting contacts were established with Prof. Khaled
Toukan, President of the newly created Al-Balqa University and Prof. Issa
Khubeis, Vice- President of the same University. It was possible to convince
them of the attractiveness of SESAME and subsequently Prince Ghazi (degrees in
philosophy from Cambridge ,UK and Princeton and member of the board of Al-Balqa
University) could also be won for the support of this project. He arranged a
meeting with King Abdullah II the next morning. After a presentation of SESAME,
His Majesty decided to sign a letter addressed to DG Mayor stating 'It is my
pleasure to inform you that I have agreed to host such a centre in Jordan on
negotiation basis'.
The King decided that the new members of the Interim Council
for Jordan would be Prof. Toukan and Prof. Khubeis, whereas Prof. Badran would
continue as member of the Finance Committee.
In discussions with Professors Toukan and Khubeis it was
mentioned that sites near Aqaba, Yarmouk University and Irbit seem to be
disfavoured being too far away and probably new sites closer to Amman will be
proposed. Free access to the site by scientists from all over the world would
pose no problem.
We were informed that the University of Jordan is operating a
Tandem Accelerator since many years and that the installation of a cyclotron
(gift from Research Centre at Karlsruhe) is being prepared at the Al-Balqa
University. Therefore Jordan considers itself able to provide the necessary
infrastructure.
Visit to Egypt
On Tuesday, 28.09.99, a meeting took place at Cairo with
members of the Technical and Scientific Committee of SESAME and other
interested scientists, in particular, Prof. Hamid M. Roshdy (member of Interim
Council, former chairman of Atomic Energy Authority), Prof. Fawzi Asfour
(member Technical Com.), Prof. T.A. El-Khalafawy (member Training Com.). In
several short talks we were informed about the preparations for the site
proposal and the infrastructure of existing large projects. At present 3 sites
are under consideration and all 3 will probably be proposed:
-
In the 6.October city, 32 km from Cairo (near the pyramids)
-
In Mubarak City for Science near Alexandria.
-
A site about half way between Cairo and Suez.
Access to the site would be granted 'according to Egyptian
rules'. In all these sites the necessary infrastructure is existing or can be
provided. The wish was expressed that a final decision on the selection of the
site should be taken only after negotiations.
Later we had a meeting with the Secretary General of the
Egyptian National Commission of UNESCO, Mr. Fawzi Abdel Zaher.
Finally a meeting with the Minister of Higher Education and
Scientific Research, Dr. Moufid Shehab was arranged. He confirmed the strong
interest of Egypt in hosting the facility. Egypt would also participate if the
site were in another country. Before a decision can be taken, all technical
issues should to be clarified. Second he would need a positive recommendation
by his advisers of the National Research Centre. If positive and if the project
would be considered to be politically interesting he would present it to the
Prime Minister for the final decision. He asked us to discuss the details with
his adviser, Prof. Sherif H. Eisa, President of the National Research Centre.
Visits were organised to Nasr City (in a suburb of Cairo) to
visit an electron accelerator (1.5 MeV, Cockroft-Walton type) and a Co 60
irradiation facility and to Inchass Village (45 km north-east of Cairo) where
the Egyptian Second Research Reactor ETRR-2 and a Variable Energy Synchrotron
for light particles (protons to alpha, about 20 MeV) could be seen. Both
facilities give a very good impression and correspond to modern technology
(e.g. very modern control systems). Facilities of power, cooling and emergency
equipment (as would be necessary for SESAME) exist at this site. They prove
that Egypt is certainly able to realise a project like SESAME. However, the
site of Inchass cannot be considered for SESAME since access is very restricted
because of security.
The visit to Egypt was organised in an excellent way by the
UNESCO Regional Office for Science and Technology for Arab States located at
Cairo and headed by Dr. M. El-Deek. This office is very efficient and could
give help to the SESAME project independent of its site.
Visit to the Palestinian National Authorities
On Thursday, 30.9.99 a meeting was held at Ramallah with the
Minister for Higher Education, Dr. Munther Sala. Also present were Dr. Lily
Feidy, Dir.Gen. of International and Cultural Relations and other
representatives of the Ministry. The strong interest to host SESAME was
confirmed and free access to the site was promised. Apparently a site which is
situated somewhere between Ramallah and Nablus will be proposed, but other
sites are also considered. An extraterritorial status of the site was
discussed.
The meeting was later joined by representatives of MERIT, a
project which has as an objective the foundation of an American - Israel -
Palestinian 'virtual research institute'. The purpose and organisation of MERIT
were explained and the advantages of possible synergies were discussed. It was
agreed that the objectives of MERIT as a teaching organisation and SESAME as a
research facility were quite different and hence a merger at the present time
should not be considered. A co-operation in the future could be possible and
mutual information on the progress of both projects was agreed.
Prof. Said A. Assaf, Head of the Arafat National Scientific
Centre for Applied Research and Co-Chairman of the SESAME Finance Committee,
had informed us that a meeting with President Arafat would be possible in the
morning of 1.10.1999 and therefore we returned after the meetings in Jerusalem
to Ramallah. We were received by President Arafat with Prof. Assaf also
present. The purpose of the SESAME project was explained and it was suggested
that President Arafat writes a letter of interest to DG Mayor offering a site,
as did the King of Jordan. President Arafat arranged a meeting with the
Minister of Planning and International Co-operation, Dr. Nabeel A. Shaath. The
Minister promised to support SESAME and went so far as to declare that he is
prepared to deviate some of the funds provided by donor states (principally
Germany and Netherlands) to SESAME even at the cost of other projects. He
indicated that in this way some 20 Million $ could be made available over the
coming years (the next negotiations with Germany are foreseen in October where
he will bring up this issue).
Visit to Israel
On Thursday, 30.09.1999, a meeting in Jerusalem at the
Ministry of Science took place. The Director General Dr. Nahman Shai who
originally intended to chair the meeting was replaced by Prof. Bishari who
until recently had been Director General and is now Chief Scientist. Among
various representatives of the Ministry was also Dr. Neal Sherman, Director for
International Scientific Relations. In the meeting the attitude of Israel
towards SESAME was reconfirmed, i.e. no site offer but active participation in
the project.
Subsequently we had a meeting with the Israel National
Committee for Synchrotron Radiation of the Israel Academy of Sciences and
Humanities which is chaired by Prof. Moshe Deutsch. Dr. Joseph van Zwaren de
Zwarenstein, Division Director of the Ministry of Science, was present as
observer. It was pointed out that this committee is the representative body of
the State of Israel for Synchrotron Radiation activities including SESAME.
Prof. Deutsch made the following points:
-
Israel is interested to co-operate in the SESAME project, but no site offer.
-
There is a real scientific interest, but they see a number of technological
challenges, e.g. the SC wigglers which are a risky project and need some
development in which Israelis could participate.
-
They have now a 'relaxed attitude' with respect to the 'white elephant'
criticism.
-
They are committed to ESRF.
After a discussion of these and some other points, the
existing attitude (participation but no site offer) was confirmed.
Israel is willing to detach 1 or 2 technicians for the
dismantling of BESSY I (see below).
General remarks and Actions
-
By pointing out that SESAME should become an international organisation under
the umbrella of UNESCO with free access and that UNESCO is prepared to sponsor
the project concerning the setting up of the laboratory and finding finances
was important to convince politicians. It was confirmed that the participation
in the project would continue independent of the chosen site, although the
respective engagement would be different. It was understood that in the first
10 years most of the investment and operation funds would have to be provided
from the outside.
-
Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, might propose more than one site.
Hence the site selection will be complicated and more discussions and
negotiations will be necessary before a final decision can be taken. For the
additional negotiations, the proposals of the competitors should be known and
therefore after 30 November all proposals should become public.
-
It is proposed that the site selection should be done in two steps: after
having received all the proposals by 30 November 1999 and after the technical
evaluation by the Technical Committee, the Interim Council should, in its
meeting in December, narrow down the proposing countries (including the
Palestinian Authorities) to a short list. Visits to sites and more detailed
negotiations will then be conducted taking into account also the views of
SESAME (technical views and views of future users). During this procedure those
countries which have proposed more than one site could then decide which site
to present as the final one. It might be expected that in parallel governments
will consult among themselves. The final decision could then hopefully be taken
early in 2000.
-
The training of engineers and technicians by participation in the dismantling
of BESSY I seems urgent. A proper and efficient reinstallation of the machine
can best be achieved if part of the personnel which will install SESAME (and
later operates it) participates in the dismantling and packing of BESSY I.
Therefore interesting countries should nominate a few people (each up to 3 or
5) with experience in magnets, vacuum, rf, electronics, mechanical engineering,
etc. Nominations should be sent to the Co-Chairman of the Technical Committee,
Prof. G.-A.Voss, DESY, Hamburg, (FAX +49-40-8998 4305 or e-mail
gavoss@mail.desy.de) or to Dr. Mohamed El-Deek, Regional Office for Science and
Technology for the Arab States, Cairo ( FAX 202-354-5296, e-mail:
UHCAI@unesco.org). After collecting the names these will be submitted to the
Technical Committee and BESSY for selection and for setting up a time table. In
the period until summer 2000 each of the persons would have to spend about 2 to
3 months at BESSY I. In total about 15 to 20 people are suggested to
participate in this training programme. UNESCO would provide the necessary
funds for travel and subsistence if no other sources can be found.
-
The brochure (produced in time for the visit, mainly thanks to the effort of
Prof. Giorgio Margaritondo) turned out to be very helpful in explaining the
objectives of SESAME. About 100 copies were distributed during the trip and
everybody was full of praise. The Egyptians intend to translate it into Arabic.
The careful preparation of the visits by Dr. Siegbert Raither was essential for the successful outcome of the trip.
Prof. Maurizio Iaccarino
Assistant Director-General
for Natural Sciences
UNESCO
Prof. Herwig Schopper
Chairman
International Interim Council
SESAME
|
Host Institute
