News Release Communique
Major Milestone Achieved at Canadian Light Source
Officials today announced the achievement of a major milestone in commissioning the storage ring, the last major component of the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron due to open next year on the University of Saskatchewan campus.
"Last weekend's testing was very successful," said CLS project leader Mark de Jong. "The electron beam is now making several complete circuits of the storage ring, and this shows that all major systems are working as designed. This achievement is a result of an immense effort by all CLS staff and contractors over the past few years."
A computer-generated image showed that the beam made at least two turns around the ring at 570-nanosecond intervals (a nanosecond is a billionth of a second).
U of S President Peter MacKinnon congratulated the CLS team, calling the achievement "a thrilling milestone in the home stretch toward an operating facility."
Further testing of synchrotron components to keep the electron beam circulating in the storage ring for several hours at a time and to increase the beam intensity will take place over the next several months, followed by commissioning tests on the experiment beamlines. The first beamlines should be available for scientific experiments by next spring.
The U of S-owned national facility, one of the largest science projects in the country, is one of the most advanced synchrotrons in the world.
The synchrotron can be looked at as three major systems, beginning with a linear accelerator (linac) which produces an electron beam traveling at almost the speed of light. This beam is injected into a booster ring, where the beam's energy is increased 10-fold to 2.9 giga-electron-volts (GeV) before the beam is passed into the storage ring. At this energy, the beam is continuously giving off synchrotron light which is harvested in beamlines for use in experiments.
Synchrotron light -- millions of times brighter than sunlight -- is used to view chemical reactions and the micro-structure of materials, paving the way for new drugs, more powerful computer chips, better engine lubricants, more effective medical imaging and a host of other applications for science and industry.
"Congratulations are due to the entire team that has designed, constructed and is now commissioning the CLS accelerator systems," said CLS Executive-Director Bill Thomlinson. "We are all looking forward to the next runs in which the electron beam will be stored and stacked, and photons delivered to the beamlines."
Congratulations also poured in from other synchrotrons including from scientists planning the two newest synchrotron projects - the Diamond Light Source in England and the Australian Synchrotron.
CLS funding partners include the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian government (including Western Economic Diversification, Natural Resources Canada, the National Research Council, NSERC, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research), Saskatchewan Industry and Resources, Ontario Innovation Trust, Alberta Innovation and Science, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, U of S, the City of Saskatoon, SaskPower, Boehringer Ingelheim, University of Western Ontario, and the University of Alberta. GlaxoSmithKline has also provided funding for a U of S chair in an area of synchrotron science.
For more Canadian Light Source information, pictures and graphics, visit: www.lightsource.ca
For more information or to see the computer-generated image of the three turns of the beam, contact:
Kathryn Warden
U of S/CLS Research Communications
(306) 966-2506
kathryn.warden@usask.ca
www.usask.ca/research
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:56