Why does Grenoble have a nuclear reactor that makes no electricity?
On the edge of Grenoble stands a nuclear reactor that has never supplied a single kilowatt-hour to the grid. It was not built to. The reactor of the Institut Laue-Langevin is a research reactor, and what it produces is neutrons.
Was the quantum Hall effect discovered in Grenoble?
Yes. The quantum Hall effect, one of the most precise phenomena in physics, was discovered in Grenoble in February 1980 by the German physicist Klaus von Klitzing, working in the city’s high magnetic field laboratory. It earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1985.
Can scientists from Poland use the ESRF and the ILL?
Yes. Poland pays into both of Grenoble’s big machines: it is a scientific associate of the ESRF synchrotron and a scientific member of the ILL neutron source. Researchers from Polish institutions can apply for time on their instruments in the same competitions as everyone else, and their proposals are judged on scientific merit.