Synchrotron to shut down for 20 months

The Synchrotron’s Extremely Brilliant Source project commenced on December 10. Over the 20 months of the project, the entire X-ray source—magnets, vacuum tubes, RF cavities, cryogenics—will be replaced. The new X-ray source will be more energy efficient and will emit a beam that is ten times smaller and, therefore, a hundred times brighter than the old beam. Future experiments will benefit from resolutions ten times higher than what the source currently provides.

The €150 million project will affect INAC, which operates five CRG* beamlines at the Synchrotron. During the project the INAC team will not be hosting outside researchers or helping design their experiments. The downtime will be used to update the operating software. In addition, the team has submitted requests to use the facilities at other synchrotrons in France and further afield for its own experiments.

*Collaborating Research Groups

Contact: francois.rieutord@cea.fr

Facebook

Twitter