Conceptual design of the High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) (Image from IHEP)

The High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), an ultra-low emittance ring-based synchrotron radiation facility, is expected to be built in the northern suburb of Beijing.

Construction of the project was approved by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, on Dec 15, 2017.

Proposed in 2008, HEPS is designed as an ultra-low emittance ring-based synchrotron radiation light source with a beam energy of 6 GeV. Fourteen beamlines will be constructed in phase one of the project. HEPS will be built in Huairou district in suburban Beijing as one of the core facilities in Huairou Science City. It is estimated that the facility will take six and a half years to build.

HEPS will be a platform to promote multi-disciplinary R&D in the fields of materials science, chemical engineering science, energy and environment science, and biomedicine. It will allow China to join the elite group of countries with high energy synchrotron radiation light sources, and provide strong support for research fields related to the country’s domestic needs. This will hopefully lead to revolutionary innovation in various industries.

The Test Facility of HEPS, the first R&D phase before the construction of the facility, was launched at IHEP, the Institute of High Energy Physics of CAS, in early 2016 and is scheduled for completion in late 2018.

Source: english.cas.cn