National synchrotron light source. Activity report, October 1, 1995--September 30, 1996

The hard work done by the synchrotron radiation community, in collaboration with all those using large-scale central facilities during 1995, paid off in FY 1996 through the DOE`s Presidential Scientific Facilities Initiative. In comparison with the other DOE synchrotron radiation facilities, the National Synchrotron Light Source benefited least in operating budgets because it was unable to increase running time beyond 100%-nevertheless, the number of station hours was maintained. The major thrust at Brookhaven came from a 15% increase in budget which allowed the recruitment of seven staff in the beamlines support group and permitted a step increment in the funding of the extremely long list of upgrades; both to the sources and to the beamlines. During the December 1995 shutdown, the VUV Ring quadrant around U10-U12 was totally reconstructed. New front ends, enabling apertures up to 90 mrad on U10 and U12, were installed. During the year new PRTs were in formation for the infrared beamlines, encouraged by the investment the lab was able to commit from the initiative funds and by awards from the Scientific Facilities Initiative. A new PRT, specifically for small and wide angle x-ray scattering from polymers, will start work on X27C in FY 1997 and existing PRTs on X26C and X9B working on macromolecular crystallography will be joined by new members. Plans to replace aging radio frequency cavities by an improved design, originally a painfully slow six or eight year project, were brought forward so that the first pair of cavities (half of the project for the X-Ray Ring) will now be installed in FY 1997. Current upgrades to 350 mA initially and to 438 mA later in the X-Ray Ring were set aside due to lack of funds for the necessary thermally robust beryllium windows. The Scientific Facilities Initiative allowed purchase of all 34 windows in FY 1996 so that the power upgrade will be achieved in FY 1997