HAMBURG, Germany, June 19, 2012 — The European X-ray Free-
Electron Laser (European XFEL) international research facility
has overcome one of its most difficult building phases:
completion of a 3.6-mile-long network of tunnels. By 2015,
laserlike x-ray flashes that enable new insights into the
nanoworld will be generated in the tunnels by scientists
worldwide. “Electrons will fly with almost the speed of light
from DESY [Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron] in Hamburg to
Osdorf,” said professor Robert Feidenhans’l, chairman of the
European XFEL Council. Tunnel XTL on Dec. 6, 2011. (Image:
©European XFEL) Tunnel construction began in July 2010 with the
tunnel boring machine TULA (TUnnel for LAser), which concluded
excavation in August 2011. A second boring machine was used from
January 2011 right up until the last section of the five photon
tunnels leading into the experiment hall was completed. (See:
Europe signs on to big x-ray facility The accelerator tunnel,
the longest of the accelerator facility, runs in a s