Open SESAME? New money may complete the Middle East light source

An initiative led by Iran, Israel, and Jordan could give new life to the stalled Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME) facility under construction in Allaan, Jordan. In the works for a dozen years, the project is intended as a driver for both topnotch science and peace in the region.

At a late-May meeting, those three SESAME member countries each promised $1 million a year for five years if another of the nine members matches their pledges this year, and at least one more does so later. Turkey and Egypt have set in motion the process to join the initiative. The project’s other members are Bahrain, Cyprus, Pakistan, and the Palestinian Authority.

If the initiative succeeds, it would cover much of the $35 million still needed in capital costs. The total tab for construction is $110 million, including the building and land, which Jordan has contributed, and the first three beamlines.

The idea for SESAME was hatched in the late 1990s when a synchrotron light source in Berlin was being retired. Herman Winick of Stanford University and Gus Voss of the Electron Synchrotron laboratory in Hamburg, Germany, thought it could be retooled. The finished SESAME is to be a third-generation 2.5-GeV light source.

When ground was broken for SESAME in 2003, the hope was that it would be open for science by 2010. But insufficient funds have delayed the project. Christopher Llewellyn Smith, an Oxford University professor and president of the SESAME council, said he is ‘now confident that SESAME is on track technically, and will soon also be positioned financially, for experiments to begin in 2015.’

Toni Feder