European Facilities: Bright prospects for Grenoble's X-rays

Europe's first multinational synchrotron radiation facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France, and under construction since January 1990, is at last taking shape. The foundations are completed, the bulk of the structural radiation shielding is in place around the main storage ring, the buildings of the linear accelerator (linac) injector and booster synchrotron are up, and the roof of the first experimental hall is nearly completed. Installation of the first machine hardware began in November with massproduced magnets of the booster, and installation of the turnkey linac injector is scheduled to begin this month. And a number of collaborative groups have bid successfully to build their own beam lines.