Tuesday, May 14, 2013

No. 714: Renovation of the SPring-8 (May 14, 2013)

Technology:
RIKEN will renovate its SPring-8, the large-scale reflection facilities with the world highest level technology of analyzing substances, located in Hyogo Prefecture with an investment of 40 billion yen. The laboratory will downsize the electromagnet to narrow down electron beam, increase the brightness of radiation light by 100 times, and uniform light quality. At the same time, it will decrease power consumption by 10 megawatts for stable operation because its activities in summer have been under control after the March 11 disaster of the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture. It plans to start the renovation in three years after obtaining an approval from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. The new SPring-8 is scheduled for completion in 6-7 years.

Since the SPring-8 started operation in 1997, it contributed a lot to the development of IGZO and low-fuel consumption tires. It is urgently required to increase the performance of the SPring-8 for the research of the next-generation solar batteries and lithium-ion batteries. In fact, the renovation is indispensable to increase Japanese competitiveness in electronics, auto, and biotechnology. RIKEN completed its SACLA for 40 billion yen last year. The new SPring-8 is expected to cover what cannot be studied by the SACLA.     

A tour of SPring-8

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