Risø National Laboratory
Encyclopedia
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
organization north of Roskilde
Roskilde
Roskilde is the main city in Roskilde Municipality, Denmark on the island of Zealand. It is an ancient city, dating from the Viking Age and is a member of the Most Ancient European Towns Network....
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. From 1 January 2008 it was made an institute under Technical University of Denmark
Technical University of Denmark
The Technical University of Denmark , often simply referred to as DTU, is a university just north of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's first polytechnic, and is today ranked among Europe's leading engineering institutions, and the...
. On 1 January 2007, the Technical University of Denmark merged with the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research, the Danish Institute for Fisheries Research, Danish National Space Center
Danish National Space Center
The Danish National Space Center is a Danish sector research Institute and a part of the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. It is located in Copenhagen at Østerbro...
, the Danish Transport Research Institute and Risø National Laboratory. Before this it was a research institute under the Danish Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation and consisted of eight research departments: Biosystems, Polymer Department, Fuel Cells and Solid State Chemistry, Materials Research, Optics and Plasma Research, Radiation Research, Systems Analysis and Wind Energy.
The mission of Risø is "to create new knowledge based on world-class research, and to ensure that our knowledge is used to promote the development of an innovative and sustainable society" (from the web page).
Risø was founded in 1956, but not officially inaugurated until 1958. Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr
Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. Bohr mentored and collaborated with many of the top physicists of the century at his institute in...
played a key role in the founding of Risø and was chairman of the Nuclear Energy Commission charged to promote the peaceful use of nuclear power.
The organization employs about 700 staff (660 man-years) as of 2005; the area of the grounds is over 2.6 square kilometres.
Risø is the site of three research nuclear reactors: DR-1, DR-2 and DR-3. DR-3 is a DIDO class nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
. All reactors are shut down and undergoing decommissioning.
Risø is today particularly noted for its involvement in wind energy
Wind energy
Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion; see also wind power.Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:E = ½ m v2 = ½ v 2...
and solid-oxide fuel cells.
Risø has strong competences in climate change effects studies and has "state of the art" facilities for realistic climate change experiments and monitoring. These include:
- RERAF (Risø Environmental Risk Assessment facility) - a phytotrone controlled environment growth facility.
- Sorø beech forest. A field station in an 80-year-old beech forest measuring carbon inputs, outputs and turnover processes by advanced techniques (e.g. eddy covarianceEddy covarianceThe eddy covariance technique is a key atmospheric flux measurement technique to measure and calculate vertical turbulent fluxes within atmospheric boundary layers...
). - CLIMAITE - Climate change effects on biological processes in terrestrial ecosystems. A field scale climate change experiment conducting multifactor experiments with elevated CO2, night time warming and altered precipitation.
Collaborators and users
- National Environmental Research Institute of DenmarkNational Environmental Research Institute of DenmarkNERI, the National Environmental Research Institute of Denmark is an independent research institute under the Aarhus University. NERI undertakes scientific consultancy work and monitoring of nature and the environment as well as applied and strategic research...
) The Risø area also house National Environmental Research Institute (NERI) part of the Danish University of AarhusUniversity of AarhusAarhus University , located in the city of Aarhus, Denmark, is Denmark's second oldest and second largest university...
. NERI is "an independent research faculty under University of Aarhus. NERI undertakes scientific consultancy work, monitoring of nature and the environment as well as applied and strategic research. NERI’s task is to establish a scientific foundation for environmental policy decisions"
- DTU Fotonik also use some of the facilities, as a part of the Optics and Plasma Research department was transferred this institute as part of the merger.
WAsP
Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program (WAsP) is a tool used in the wind energyWind energy
Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion; see also wind power.Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:E = ½ m v2 = ½ v 2...
industry to simulate wind flow over terrain and estimate the long-term energy production of wind turbine
Wind turbine
A wind turbine is a device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy. If the mechanical energy is used to produce electricity, the device may be called a wind generator or wind charger. If the mechanical energy is used to drive machinery, such as for grinding grain or...
s and wind farm
Wind farm
A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
s. It has been in development by Risø National Laboratory for over 20 years, and runs on PCs using Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. The name WAsP is short for WAAAP ("W, some As, and a P"), the acronym of the software name. Current version is 10.1.