85China will invest 4.8 billion yuan ($700 million) to build a High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) in Beijing next year, which is designed to be the brightest in the world.

The new facility, which is expected to be completed in a 6-year period starting from November 2018, is part of the government's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) and regarded as the fourth-generation synchrotron radiation facility, the Beijing Morning Post reported on Monday.

Synchrotron radiation, which is an extremely powerful source of X-rays and produced by highly energetic electrons, can detect atomic structure of all materials, said the report.

According to news portal sciencenet.cn, the HEPS will be 70 times brighter than the National Synchrotron Light Source II, one of the world's most advanced synchrotrons.

The HEPS project will be essential for national demand of engineering materials, according to the sciencenet.cn.

There are more than 50 synchrotron radiation facilities in the world, which are useful for a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological experiments. For example, scientists in Shanghai had revealed the occurrence of living tumor and cerebrovascular disease, through Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), providing theoretical basis and technical support for diagnosis and treatment for diseases, according to the Beijing Morning Post report.

China has undertaken the three phases of development in the synchrotron radiation light source, which originated from 1947. The first generation light source was the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility, and the second generation the Hefei Light Source, in East China's Anhui Province, the report said.

The SSRF project is a third-generation synchrotron radiation light source, which is designed to build seven beam line experimental stations in its first phase and ranks fourth in the world, behind Japan, the United States and the European Union, the Xinhua News Agency reported in December 2004 when the construction of the project was launched.(Global Times)

Link: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1030270.shtml