The German Science Council, an agency of the German government, assessed the TESLA project planned by the research center DESY in cooperation with international partners to, be worthy of support under certain conditions. The assessments of nine appraised large scale facilities for basic research in the natural sciences have been published today. "We are very glad that the Science Council changed its first positive statement about TESLA to the German federal government to a recommendation, and we are looking forward to hear the upcoming evaluations" said Professor Albrecht Wagner, chairman of the DESY Directorate, "since we have complied with the conditions posed by the Science Council".

The Science Council listed two conditions in its first evaluation statement: to detail the project proposal for the superconducting electron-positron linear collider with respect to international funding and cooperation, and to present a revised technical project proposal for the TESLA X-ray laser version with a separate linear accelerator. In October, DESY sent the corresponding papers to the Science Council: a draft for the administrative, organizational and financial structures of an international linear collider collaboration and a complementary technical project proposal for the X-ray laser as well as a respective memorandum for each theme, including the current scientific-political developments. These papers will influence the further evaluation. The final decision of the federal government regarding the TESLA project is expected in 2003.

TESLA stands for TeV-Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator - a particle accelerator facility operating at teraelectronvolt energy which is being developed in an international collaboration. TESLA comprises of a 33-kilometer-long linear accelerator bringing electrons into collision with their antiparticles, the positrons, and an X-ray laser laboratory. The special feature of the new facility: A new type of superconducting accelerators allow collisions between particles at an extremely high level of energy and serve as a source of intense and extremely short X-ray flashes with laser properties. The TESLA X-ray lasers will offer new perspectives for research in different disciplines - from physics and chemistry to biology, materials research and medicine. TESLA is to be established and operated as an international research center.

Development work for the TESLA project - which is to be realized in Hamburg and the region of Pinneberg (Schleswig-Holstein) - is currently being carried out within a large international collaboration upon the initiative and under the leadership of DESY. Meanwhile, 46 institutes from 12 countries are involved in developing and testing the innovative TESLA technology at a test facility at DESY. The results obtained so far in the development of the superconducting accelerator technology and the X-ray laser are milestones that have been acknowledged all over the world.