The Advanced Photon Source Upgrade (APS-U) project continues to make progress, with design nearly completed and construction underway for important parts of the upgrade. As the project moves closer to the scheduled start of the year-long installation period, during which the current facility will pause operations, project leaders continue to assess a situation complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The shutdown of the APS is currently scheduled to begin in mid-2022, with initial operations resuming at the upgraded APS a year later. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected upgrade work, both on-site and with industrial partners, and complicated our supply chain. Project leaders are keeping in close contact with all partners and reviewing plans. Should the shutdown schedule change, updated information will be provided as soon as possible.
The upgrade project includes nine new feature beamlines and enhancements to 15 others. Beamline construction is being scheduled to minimize impact to current users to the extent possible. In addition to the enclosures, contracts are in the works for technical components of many of these beamlines, and a full schedule of that work will be forthcoming as soon as negotiations are completed.
After a thorough review, a horizontal injection scheme was chosen to inject electron bunches into the storage ring. Two technically viable schemes had been developed – one for vertical injection and one for horizontal injection - but in the end the horizontal scheme was determined to present a lower risk with equivalent performance. This choice is the last major technical decision on the accelerator portion of the upgrade.
Perhaps the most visible sign of progress on the APS-U is the construction of the Long Beamline Building (LBB), which will house two of the new feature beamlines: the In Situ Nanoprobe (ISN) and the High Energy X-ray Microscope (HEXM). ISN will allow for in situ and operando experiments with an optimally focused beam (20 nanometers) and a large working distance (50 millimeters). HEXM will use high-energy X-ray beams to image samples of up to a centimeter in size with high resolution, in a host of in situ environments, to track defects as they form and interact in materials. Site preparation and foundation work for the LBB is happening now, with structural work expected to begin in the second quarter of 2021. We expect beneficial occupancy to be granted in March 2022 and the building to be completed in June 2022.
The upgrade team continues to receive, inspect and assemble components of the new storage ring and beamlines as they arrive. More than 887 of the planned 1,321 magnets that will make up the new storage ring are on site now, and the team is precisely measuring each one. The upgrade has recently completed the first practice assembly of one of the magnet plinth modules – there will be 120 of these modules in total – and will continue to refine the process of putting these modules together and aligning them.
Construction of the new enclosure for the 28-ID beamline is nearly complete. This area will house the new Instrumentation Development, Evaluation and Analysis (IDEA) test beamline, which will enable the testing of X-ray optics and components for the upgrade. The long-term plan for 28-ID is to construct the Coherent High-Energy X-ray (CHEX) beamline, designed to study the synthesis of materials in real time. CHEX will help with the creation of new LEDs and quantum computing systems, among other things.
After a considerable pandemic-related delay, construction of the new enclosure for the 25-ID beamline is ramping up now. This will be the new home of the Advanced Spectroscopy and LERIX (ASL) beamline, currently housed at 20-ID (the future site of HEXM). The ASL systems will be upgraded during the move, resulting in greater capabilities for spectroscopy with a beam that can focus down to one micron.
The team is continuing to review designs for the feature beamlines and the various beamlines that will be upgraded, with equipment procurements underway. The final design review has been held for a 10-nanometer-resolution bionanoprobe instrument that will be installed at 2-ID, offering higher resolution for trace element studies in soft materials.
The next DOE Office of Project Assessment review of the project is slated for October this year. These reviews are a regular part of large projects within the DOE system. Reviewers take a clear and honest look at the progress so far, bringing to bear the experience of people within DOE who have similar experience with large-scale projects.
The APS Upgrade home page has been updated with the latest information, and will serve as a resource for upgrade news as it happens. Please check the site for updates. More information about conducting research at the APS for current and prospective users is available at the users office website.