GUANGZHOU, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) --The construction of a key facility to support the Southern Advanced Photon Source (SAPS) started Wednesday in Dongguan, southern China's Guangdong Province.
The new facility will serve as a test platform for the research and development of the SAPS, a high-energy physics research project that the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Guangdong Provincial government agreed to build near China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS), the country's first and the world's fourth pulsed spallation neutron source.
The SAPS is a national synchrotron light source research facility. A synchrotron light produces intense pulses of x-rays that allow detailed studies of structures.
Similar to x-rays, neutrons can penetrate substances to gain information about the structure.
Chen Yanwei, deputy director of Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the spallation neutron source and synchrotron light source, both allowing study of molecular structures, have their own special properties and are complementary in scientific research.
The platform will support prospective studies, and the research and development of key equipment, providing a basis for the optimal design of the SAPS, Chen said.
Both synchrotron radiation sources and spallation neutron sources are viewed as ideal "probes" for detecting the structure of the microscopic world, which are widely used in fields like physics, chemical engineering, material science, energy and environment.
The total investment of the SAPS research and test platform is about 587 million yuan (83 million U.S. dollars), and the construction is expected to be completed in 2021.
Chen said that in the future, the two major scientific facilities will also provide strong support for the building of an International Technology Innovation Center in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
