NSF approves Cornell's synchrotron source

The National Science Foundation has approved a grant of $1 million over the next three years for the construction of a synchrotron radiation facility at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring. The Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source will produce x rays up to 100 keV, a higher energy than is available from other existing or planned sources in the US; it will thus complement synchrotron radiation facilities now operating or under construction at Brookhaven, Wisconsin and Stanford (see PHYSICS TODAY, March 1977, page 17). Conversion of the 12‐GeV electron synchrotron at Cornell to a colliding‐beam device for up to 8‐GeV electrons and 8‐GeV positrons is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 1979; the synchrotron‐radiation facility should then be ready for users in the summer of 1979.