The institute, named after the Swiss physicist Paul Scherrer, was created in 1988 when EIR ("Eidgenössisches Institut für Reaktorforschung", Swiss Federal Institute for Reactor Research, founded in 1960) was merged with SIN ("Schweizerisches Institut für Nuklearphysik", Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research, founded in 1968). The two institutes on opposite sides of the River Aare served as national centres for research: one focusing on nuclear energy and the other on nuclear and particle physics. Over the years, research at the centres expanded into other areas, and nuclear and reactor physics accounts for just 11 percent of the research work at PSI today. Since Switzerland decided in 2011 to phase out nuclear energy, this research has primarily been concerned with questions of safety, such as how to store radioactive waste safely in a deep geological repository.