Exciting news for NSLS-II at BNL and their users! Mr. Dick Hseuh, the Vacuum Group Leader for NSLS ll and responsible party for the design, construction, and overall commissioning of the vacuum systems in the NSLS ll accelerator complex, tells us that they are currently commissioning their Booster with beam and plan to start storage ring beam commissioning in late March of this year.

After a shutdown of the accelerators for installation of special devices, the project should be completed by mid-Summer. By October, NSLS ll will be ready for users to produce and send x-rays down to the beam lines. The x-rays that are formed in this ring will be more than 10,000 times brighter than those at the current NSLS.

The medium-energy electron storage ring (3 billion electron-volts) ring is made up of over 200 long (and a few short) precision machined, extruded aluminum chambers. Each chamber utilizes multiple Atlas bi-metal flanges of various sizes, approximately 1500 total, to connect the chambers that comprise the ring.

Aluminum was chosen “for the resistive wall impedance for the short bunch electron beam. Aluminum,” says Mr. Hseuh, “is much better than stainless”. While copper is an even better performer for this application, aluminum ultimately wins due to the low cost of material.
Some noteworthy missions at NSLS ll will include the National Institutes of Health’s structural genomics initiative, DOE’s Genomics: GTL initiative, and the federal nanoscience initiative.
Congratulation, Dick Hseuh and Team! Atlas is proud to be a part of your venture.