RIKEN/SPring-8, Hyogo
XFEL/SPring-8 construction was started in 2006, aiming at generating X-ray laser at 1 Angstrom. The building construction was completed in April 2009, followed by installation of accelerator components. In March 2010, we completed all accelerating structure installation. The klystron modulator and LLRF systems are under installation. We use 19 undulator of in-vacuum type (5 m each). At this moment 10 undulators have been installed and careful qualification of undulator field is carried out. We will start high power processing in this October, and we will send the first electron beam into beam dump before April 2011, followed by beam commissioning for X-ray lasing.
DESY, Hamburg
In Europe, several national FEL projects are in progress, the seeded FEL FERMI@Elettra at Sincrotrone Trieste is expecting first lasing by the end of 2010, and the capacity of the FLASH facility at DESY in Hamburg will be doubled by adding a second, seeded FEL in the next few years. These national FEL centres in Europe are currently preparing the foundation of a consortium called EuroFEL in order to be more efficient and to better coordinate their activities in research and development, training and other areas. This contribution will present the main ideas of EuroFEL and the current status of its preparatory phase.