Argonne National Lab Begins Installing Light Source Upgrade

Starting this week, the Advanced Photon Source user facility at Argonne National Lab will be offline for about one year to accommodate installation of equipment upgrades.

APS is a synchrotron electron accelerator that has been operating since 1995 and it is the preeminent U.S. facility for research employing continuous beams of high-energy X-rays. In an ordinary year, APS serves more than 5,000 users, enabling the study of the structure and dynamics of materials at the atomic level, among other applications.

The upgrade will multiply the light source’s brightness by up to 500 times, bringing its capabilities up to par those already available at the world-leading European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in France.

Congress has been funding the upgrade project for over a decade and its total $815 million budget is, as of this fiscal year, now fully appropriated. The project has progressed smoothly during its design and equipment fabrication phases, with costs and schedules remaining generally stable despite pandemic-related disruptions over the last few years.