Radiation facility remains on cutting edge

The Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility - which represents a major step in Shanghai's journey to become a world-leading science and technology innovation center - will see its research capability more than double within the next three years, the facility's director said on the center's 10-year anniversary on Monday.

Zhao Zhentang, the director, said there will be 40 beam lines and 60 laboratories in operation at the facility by 2022, up from the current 15 beam lines and 19 laboratories. Over the past decade its area has doubled to 107,100 square meters, he said.

The facility, the first large science project jointly invested by the central government and the municipal government of Shanghai, in involved in frontier scientific research in various fields, including life sciences, new materials, physics, chemistry, environmental sciences and archaeology. It is by far the largest scientific project in China.