SRS sets itself for a strong future

The synchrotron radiation source at Daresbury is the first dedicated X-ray source which came in operation in early 1981. It saw a major lattice modification in 1987 and since then more and more insertion devices have been introduced with nearly half of the instruments based on insertion devices. The latest multipole wiggler is a 2.46 T nine-pole device with an external gap of 20 mm (internal gap of 15 mm). The wiggler was designed and built at the laboratory (see figure) and will be installed in section 10 in January 2003. This will provide a very competitive MAD protein crystallographic facility (https://nwsgc.ac.uk). Currently a new 500 kW klystron power supply from Thales is being installed. Provision of this new supply, which incorporates advanced crowbarless technology, will address the major source of SRS faults over the last two years. The SRS has also began a major reorganization in terms of Science Colleges, namely Biology and Medicine; Materials and Engineering; Physics; Structural and Environmental Chemistry. The changes address a global debate about the nature of synchrotron radiation facilities whether they are simply Service Centres or are Centres for Science and Discovery.

Figure 1 The 2.46 T nine-pole wiggler.