• Number 314  |
• June 21, 2010

Advanced Photon Source upgrade approved

Advances in energy conservation, better materials for frontier technologies and new economic engines and breakthroughs in understanding diseases could all come about thanks to an upgrade to the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory.

DOE has granted approval to proceed with conceptual design of the APS upgrade, the first in a series of major milestones that the project must meet under DOE’s project management regimen. 

“This is a major step in securing America’s scientific future by taking an already premier facility and preparing it to meet the next generation of scientific needs and discoveries,” said Argonne Director Eric Isaacs.

The upgrade will be far more cost-effective than building a new facility. It will make revolutionary improvements in performance needed to address the sustainable energy and health research needs of the future. The upgrade will also add new X-ray facilities, make existing X-ray facilities 10 to 100 times more powerful and almost double the number of experiments that can be carried out in a year. In addition, the upgrade is expected to create new high-tech jobs.

[Jared Sagoff, 630.252.5549,
jsagoff@anl.gov]