Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Harima Science Garden City

Nestled in the hills to the west of Kobe lies the Harima Science Garden City and its prized SPring-8 (Super Photon ring-8 GeV) synchrotron radiation facility producing an amazing 8 giga electron volts of power.  As the world's largest third generation synchrotron radiation facility since 1997, SPring-8 is one of eleven similar-like facilities nationally, which places Japan only behind the U.S. (13) in terms of number of synchrotron radiation facilities for one country. 

Taking six years to build and surpassing Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Argonne, Illinois and European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble, France in terms of power and size, SPring-8 allows for researchers to study electrons moving at the speed of light and with a light intensity one billion times that of the conventional x-ray.

With personal and group site tours available for the public, come and see for yourself what it is like to be inside this mammoth facility with a circumference of 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles).  

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