Interserve has been selected to start work on an £8 million advanced experimental station and electron microscopy facility at Diamond Light Source on the Harwell Oxford Campus.
Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron science facility, accelerates electrons to produce bright X-ray light, which is then fed to 24 experimental stations known as ‘beamlines’, where it is used by scientists to conduct ‘cutting- edge’ research into areas as diverse as fossils and viruses.
The new facility will use Diamond’s intense X-ray light to power an X-ray nanoprobe – a powerful microscope for examining materials as small as one billionth of a metre in size. It will also house a new national facility for high
resolution electron microscopy, and cryo- electron microscopes, for viewing biological samples in atomic detail. The facilities currently attract scientists from all over the world.
The centre will require significant environmental controls. Particular control is required over temperature variation, acoustic control, vibration, and electromagnetic interference. Measures incorporated will include high tolerance anti-vibration structural slabs, stringent airtightness and insulation measures to control temperature variation, and austenitic stainless steel reinforcement to minimise electromagnetic interference from the building structure.
The facility should become operational in 2016.
