Canadian Light Source gets approval for routine operations

Canada's synchrotron has received a licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to commence routine operation, clearing the last regulatory hurdle before welcoming researchers to the $173.5 million (US $130 million) University of Saskatchewan owned national facility. The Canadian Light Source (CLS) is currently completing its first set of seven beamlines. The first call for proposals for research at the CLS will go out this autumn, with the first experiments expected to be underway by early 2005. CLS is described as one of the largest science projects in Canada for a few decades, and is planning a whole set of activities to coincide with its grand opening celebrations in October to inform the wider public of its planned activities and its future impact on society. CLS is a 2.9 GeV third-generation synchrotron radiation facility with a circumference of 170 m and ten usable straight sections with an emittance of 18 nm rad [see J. Synchrotron Rad. (2004), 11, 214].