Cutting a ceremonial yellow ribbon, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Illinois leaders marked the completion of a new facility that will host experiments that will contribute to the future of electric vehicles, quantum computers and resilient materials for all kinds of uses.

The newly constructed Long Beamline Building (LBB) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is an experiment hall that will become a part of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility. It will house two new beamlines that will transport ultrabright X-rays from the heart of the APS to cutting-edge scientific instruments.

This next generation of beamlines will be capable of providing high-resolution X-ray images of critical components and technologies from aircraft engines to solar cells to advanced materials for microelectronics, in clear detail and at impressively small scale.

The LBB is part of an $815 million upgrade of the APS, a DOE Office of Science user facility, one of the most productive X-ray light sources in the world. More than 5,000 scientists from around the globe use the APS in a typical year to conduct research in fields ranging from chemistry to life sciences to materials science to geology.

“When America leads on science, we boost our global competitiveness, and we create jobs. President Biden believes that investing in science and innovation helps us tackle not only today’s greatest challenges, but tomorrow’s as well,” said Secretary Granholm. “The newly unveiled facility at Argonne National Lab’s Advanced Photon Source is exactly what scientific leadership looks like and DOE could not be more proud of the scientists, researchers, staff and students who lead this important work.”

U.S. Representative Bill Foster, U.S. Representative Bobby Rush, Argonne Laboratory Director Paul K. Kearns, and dozens of scientists, engineers and APS team members joined Secretary Granholm for the occasion.

The LBB, which broke ground for construction in June 2020, remains the most outwardly visible portion of the APS Upgrade project. To allow installation and commissioning of various components essential to the upgrade, the APS will pause operations for one year, starting in April 2023. When the light source returns in 2024 and experiments resume, the long beamlines in the LBB will be put to use immediately.

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