A new superconductor Tokamak facility HT-7U is under construction.
In addition to the project to renovate the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider (BEPCII), which is put into implementation recently, CAS will inject handsome amount of money to other big science facilities, says CAS Vice-President Bai Chunli in an interview with reporters.
For instance, CAS will join efforts with State Reform and Development Commission and Shanghai Municipal Government to develop the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. To be located at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, the project will be completed by 2010 with a total investment of up to 1.2 billion yuan ($144 million). The light sources will be first class in the world and provide a crucial platform for scientific research and technology development in various fields.
Another example is the 235-million-yuan Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectrographic Telescope (LAMOST). It is a meridian reflecting Schmidt telescope with a clear aperture of 4-meter, a focal length of 20-meter, a field of view of 5-degree. Led by National Astronomical Observatories of CAS, the construction of the project is in full swing. When it is completed by the end of 2004, the LAMOST will open to astronomical institutions within and outside the Academy and participate into international cooperative initiatives.
Significant progress was made last fall for the building of a new superconductor Tokamak facility HT-7U for controllable nuclear fusion at the Institute of Plasma Physics, a subordinate of the CAS Hefei Institutes of Physical Science.
In addition, a cooling storage ring at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou (HIRFL-CSR) is also under construction. With a budget of about 240 million yuan, the project will provide an outstanding facility for researchers to conduct research into highly charged heavy ion atomic physics, explore new possibilities in the synthesis of new nuclear astrophysics and applications of heavy ion beams to materials science and life science.
