The Argonne Advanced Photon Source upgrade has been fully launched, and the brightness of the synchrotron has been increased by 500 times

Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source (APS) has announced that it has begun its long-planned comprehensive upgrade. In the process, the electronic storage ring at the center of the device will be removed and replaced with a state-of-the-art one that will make the synchrotron 500 times brighter. Brighter beams, making it promising to lead to new discoveries in energy storage, materials science, medicine and more.

APS has been in operation for 28 years, and the electronic storage ring was built and installed in the 1990s to power its X-ray beams. For more than 25 years, APS has been one of the most productive X-ray sources worldwide. "Like any machine, APS needs to be upgraded to keep up with advances in technology." APS Upgrade (APS-U) Jim Kerby, upgrade project director.

The facility's ultra-bright X-ray beams will be shut down for a year to allow for a full upgrade. According to the plan, construction of the APS-U upgrade project began on April 17 this year and is expected to be completed within 12 months. The DOE has invested $815 million in the project, and the upgraded APS is expected to be back up and running in 2024.

(Photo credit: Argonne National Laboratory)

Although user operations will be suspended on April 17, the APS upgrade team has been working on the construction of the project's new storage ring for more than two years. During June 2022, the researchers completed construction of a new building housing two new experimental stations. For months, they have been building several new experimental stations. Once the new ring is in place, the team will test it and will build seven new experiment stations.

"Nevertheless, the project entered a new phase on April 17, with intensive work underway to remove the old storage ring, install the new one and construct the experimental station," said Jim Kerby.

The most time-consuming part of the upgrade process may have occurred in the past. Over the past three years or more, the Argonne team has worked with an extensive network of industrial partners who have manufactured components that will come together to complete the upgrade next year. Overall, the upgrade has been more than a decade in the making.

"Looking ahead, the main task for the next year is to dismantle existing machines and replace and test new storage rings," Kerby said. "Beyond that, after commissioning, researchers using APS will spend years exploring all branches of science in ways we can't imagine now, just as they have used the original APS for almost 30 years."

The new storage ring is made up of 1,321 powerful electromagnets, thousands of power units and a thin, long vacuum system that connects everything. It would require 32 miles of power cable, 8 miles of diagnostic cable and 20 miles of fiber optics. It will be assembled in sections at an off-site site near Argonne Park before being shipped to an existing APS facility. All in all, the storage ring will be two-thirds of a mile long and weigh about 6 million pounds. The brighter beam will allow scientists to look deeper inside the material, track the movement of ions inside the battery, and trace the path of energy through tiny microelectronic chips.

Kerby said: "The desire for the upgrade basically comes from the incredible performance enhancements that will broaden the range of experiments that the facility will be able to perform, tasks that will be delivered to the scientific community. The desire to upgrade APS is driven by the record of discoveries made by light sources, and the breadth of technology created by the knowledge gained through those discoveries. It's going to be an incredible facility for decades to come."

Argonne National Laboratory plans to hold a series of first experimental workshops in the summer of 2023, where researchers will discuss plans for the first exploration after the upgrade is complete. Scientists use APS to conduct countless experiments in many scientific disciplines, from materials science to chemistry to biology, and these experiments will continue on the upgraded APS.

Source: OFweek