Items from the decommissioned Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) Laboratory at Daresbury

Collection of items from the decommissioned Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) Laboratory at Daresbury.

The Daresbury Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) was the world’s first dedicated X-ray synchrotron radiation source – a large scientific facility used by hundreds of scientists in their research.

A synchrotron is a type of circular particle accelerator, a machine that accelerates subatomic particles and focusses them into a beam, which scientists can use for experiments. The centrepiece of the SRS was a giant metal storage ring 30 metres in diameter, with beamlines arranged around the outside of the ring for scientists to set up their experiments on. Electrons travelled around inside the ring at almost the speed of light, accelerated and controlled by electromagnets. The intense x-ray light from the electrons was channelled through the beamlines into scientific experiments.

Scientists used the intense x-ray light from the SRS for many different experiments, particularly to understand the underlying molecular structure of materials, chemicals and biological samples.

The SRS was commissioned at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire in 1981 and replaced an earlier experimental synchrotron named NINA (Northern Institutes Nuclear Accelerator). After 27 years of operation the SRS was decommissioned in 2008.