The U.S. Department of Energy has granted its final approval to the project, bringing the decade-plus-long effort to a close
The upgraded APS is now the brightest synchrotron X-ray light source in the world, and extraordinary new scientific experiments are underway.
The comprehensive upgrade of the Advanced Photon Source (APS) is officially completed.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has given its final approval to the APS Upgrade Project, an $815 million effort to transform the APS into the brightest synchrotron X-ray facility in the world. The effort has taken more than a decade to plan and complete and has resulted in a facility with unprecedented capabilities for scientific discovery. The APS is a DOE Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.
The upgraded APS now generates X-ray beams that are up to 500 times brighter than before and sports nine new experiment stations (called beamlines) built to take full advantage of those enhanced beams. Scientists have been using the revamped facility for more than a year, exploring its new capabilities for research into more durable materials (for airplane turbines and other high-stress uses), longer-lasting batteries (for laptops and cell phones) and microelectronics (for our device-driven modern lives).
Read more on the Argonne website
Image: Advanced Photon Source
Credit: Argonne National Laboratory