Diamond Light Source & Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL)- Chilton, Oxfordshire
http://www.diamond.ac.uk/default.htm
http://www.clf.rl.ac.uk/
Duration: 10 hours
Diamond Light Source is the largest UK-funded scientific facility to be built for over 30 years. The machine is a third generation synchrotron, combining three particle accelerators which accelerate electrons up to close to the speed of light. The largest of these is the storage ring, over 560m in circumference. All the accelerators are housed in a futuristic doughnut-shaped building which covers the area of 5 football pitches. Diamond became operational in January 2007, with seven experimental stations. Ultimately it will host up to 40 cutting edge research stations, supporting the life, physical and environmental sciences.
Adjacent to Diamond is the UK's premier physics laboratory, the Rutherford Appleton Lab (RAL), a multidisciplinary physics lab that serves the UK's universities and industry. We will have a half day tour of the world-famous Central laser Facility, home of the VULCAN and ASTRA lasers, before moving on to Diamond for the afternoon.