Key facilities enable scientific advancement

A technician operates a part of the China Spallation Neutron Source in Dongguan, Guangdong province, in July. MAO SIQIAN/XINHUA

The fourth-generation synchrotron radiation light source, the High Energy Photon Source, located in Beijing's Huairou Science City, is expected to be fully operational by the end of next year.

Once completed, it will be China's first high-energy light source and one of the brightest fourth-generation synchrotron radiation facilities in the world, emitting light 1 trillion times brighter than the sun, according to the Institute of High Energy Physics, which is part of the CAS.

The CAS currently has over 30 large scientific facilities in operation or under construction, including specialized research facilities for specific scientific and technological goals in certain disciplines, such as the Beijing Electron-Positron Collider and the Heavy Ion Research Facility in Lanzhou.

There are also public experimental facilities serving multidisciplinary basic research, such as the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility and the Hefei Synchrotron Radiation Source; as well as public technology facilities providing basic data, such as the China Remote Sensing Satellite Ground Station and the BPL and BPM national time service systems.

According to the CAS, large scientific facilities in China play a strategic role in achieving high-level technological self-reliance, driving the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, ensuring the security of industrial chains and supply chains, and promoting high-quality economic development.

Over the past few decades, under the country's unified deployment of relevant departments, the layout of major scientific and technological infrastructure in the country has gradually improved.