The SSRL - An Inside View

Greetings all, I've got nothing on the website today which gives me free reign to talk about something that happened to me today which was very, very interesting.

I got to see the inner workings of the synchrotraon known as SPEAR3 operated at the Stanford Synchotron Radiation Laboratory, or the SSRL for short.

It may not sound exciting to you, but we're talking about state-of-the-art, drop your jaw, holy %$@* technology here! There are magnets inside that weigh 10,000 pounds. To be installed, they take the roof off and lower them in with a crane. They produce local magnetic fields of two Teslas. That didn't mean anything to me either until my guide told me that's a stronger magnetic field 40,000 times stronger than is produced by the Earth itself!

Granted, the Earth's is much, much larger. But this is much stronger.

These giant magnets, and others that are smaller, are responsible for focusing the beam of electrons, making them wiggle to produce x-rays, or changing their direction. The beam comes to a "wiggler" or an "undulator" which makes the electron move back and forth. This produced x-rays. The x-rays continue on a straight path to a testing station where scientists use them in all sorts of experiments. Meanwhile, the beam of electrons passes by more magnets which deflect it a bit to the left or right. Eventually, the beam goes in a giant circle and produces many different lines of x-rays for scientific use.

Oh, and by the way, it's usually filled with radiation. But the whole place was shut down today for a three-month maintenance and upgrade period, which happens every year, and allows for safe access. Since it's usually a radiation hazard, I don't think they let the general public get a look at this stuff ever, so I had a good time poking around (authorized and careful, of course).

That's it for today, I'll try to get some pictures eventually and keep telling you more about this amazing facility, but I got home from Vegas very late last night and need to get some sleep.

There are all sorts of wires, smaller magnets, tubing, circuitry, and other neat-looking things everywhere.