Communication with APS Users, 9/15/2011

On Thursday, September 15, 2011, William Brinkman, Director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science gave his approval for Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) for the Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U) project.

CD-1 means that the DOE has formally approved the alternative selection and cost range for the APS-U project, establishing the preliminary technical scope of the project and authorizing the detailed preliminary design, and initial research and development activities.

This follows a successful DOE review of a conceptual design for the APS-U project in May that resulted in unanimous review committee recommendation for approval of CD-1. The final conceptual design report has now been made publicly available. The review provided comments and recommendations that will be incorporated into the preliminary design for the APS-U project.

The scientific vision that drives the APS-U project planning is the need to image real materials under real conditions in real time, with spatial, energy, and temporal resolution far better than the APS can deliver today. The APS Upgrade project will add new x-ray capabilities and improve existing x-ray facilities at the Advanced Photon Source by factors of 10 to 100. The facility upgrade will increase both the number of users the facility can accommodate and their productivity by adding or improving more than a dozen beamlines, installing new insertion devices with improved brilliance at high energies, incorporating superconducting radio-frequency cavities that can provide picosecond x-ray pulses, and allowing the accelerator to operate at higher current.

Thus, the APS Upgrade project will equip the APS to meet the needs of today's and tomorrow's scientists.

The staff of the APS will continue to seek input from our user community and the APS Scientific Advisory Committee as we engage in the preliminary design process. We highly encourage user participation.