BERGISCH GLADBACH, GERMANY - RI Research Instruments GmbH, a majority-owned subsidiary of Bruker Energy & Supercon Technologies (BEST) Inc., has announced the award of a $7.7 million contract from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory. The contract is for the turn-key supply of a 200 MeV electron injection linear accelerator for BNL’s next-generation National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS-II).

This new contract covers the engineering, manufacturing, integration, delivery, installation and commissioning of the linear accelerator (linac). Delivery is expected in January 2012. A linac represents the first key element of third generation synchrotron light sources. It generates, accelerates and delivers an electron beam of superior quality to be used in a storage ring for generating X-rays, ultraviolet light and infrared light for research in such diverse fields as biology and medicine, chemistry and environmental sciences, physics, and materials science.

According to a BNL publication, their current light source — the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) — is one of the world’s most widely used scientific facilities. Meeting the critical scientific challenges of the United States energy future will require advanced new capabilities that a new facility called NSLS-II is expected to provide. Construction of the NSLS-II began in 2009 and initial operation is expected in 2015. NSLS-II will be a new state-of-the-art, medium-energy electron storage ring (3 billion electron-volts) designed to deliver world-leading intensity and brightness, and produce x-rays more than 10,000 times brighter than the current NSLS.

Dr. Michael Peiniger, managing director of RI Research Instruments, explains, “This award represents the continuation of our business in linear electron accelerator systems and particle accelerating products worldwide. Similar electron linear accelerators have been supplied to major research laboratories in Switzerland, Great Britain, Australia, Germany and are under production for Taiwan and The Netherlands. We are very pleased to have been selected by BNL for the NSLS-II Project, which is expected to have world-leading performance.”