The first high-power laser in Europe and the second in the world will become operational in June, on the Magurele platform in Romania, according to Mihnea Costoiu, the delegate minister for Higher Education and Research.

“Medicine is one of the areas we’ll support in the coming period at Magurele also, with generous amounts. Moreover, the first applications will begin very soon, probably in June we’ll inaugurate the first high-power laser in Europe and the second in the world, after the one at Barclay-Livermore of 1.7 petawatt, and which will be first used for medical purposes,” said Costoiu, cited by local Mediafax.

The minister also spoke about including medical universities and centers in the academic forum of the project of the Magurele laser (ELI-NP).

ELI-NP (Extreme Light Infrastructure-Nuclear Physics), a nuclear physics research center to be built at Magurele, is one of the three pillars of the 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.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com