European Union commits $6.45 million to Middle East synchrotron

Science : SESAME, the multinational synchrotron light source under construction in the Middle East, is one step closer to being operational by 2015 . The European Union has announced that it will invest €5 million ($6.45 million) in magnets to be built by CERN for the project. SESAME will be the first synchrotron facilityâmdash;a particle accelerator that produces high-energy x rays for a wide range of usesâmdash;to operate in the Middle East. It has gathered support from most of the countries in the area, including Israel and Iran. With $50 million already invested, another $10 million is expected to be needed to complete the project by 2015. SESAME was originally planned as an upgrade of a European synchrotron that was being decommissioned. Because the upgraded version would not produce energies comparable to other synchrotrons, however, the old synchrotron will be used instead as a booster accelerator that then feeds electrons into the main accelerator. Construction began in Allaan, Jordan, in 2004.