Brody Langager
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Saskatoon’s Canadian Light Source is currently working with a newly installed upgrade, and more could be coming in the future to improve Canada’s work in science.
Ingrid Pickering, CSL’s Chief Science Officer, said Canada’s synchrotron makes a very bright light that allows scientists to discover a number of things.
The synchrotron is located in Saskatoon at the University of Saskatchewan, and is a one-of-a-kind facility in Canada.
Pickering said the light has special properties, being brighter than anything you’d normally see in a lab.
“We can tune that light, select out different colours, including into the x-rays, and that’s special,” Pickering says. “And we can also focus it down into a very small spot. We can look at tiny, tiny things in very intricate detail.”
CLS has four main pillars of emphasis when it comes to research: health, agriculture, environment and advanced materials.
The synchrotron helps scientists from across the world with research revolving around infectious diseases, pharmaceuticals, crop and pest research, critical minerals, and designing new, exotic materials.
“We can do this only here,” Pickering said. “Only here, at the Canadian Light Source, here in Saskatoon, at the University of Saskatchewan. It’s a unique tool to do this.”
Pickering gave an example of work being done around legacy mine tailings, saying they have been sitting there for years but might contain value today.
“There may be commodity in there which is now useful. Maybe they couldn’t extract it before when they first mined it, or maybe that wasn’t an element that was useful back then.”
She said these tailings could benefit industries that develop things like batteries, allowing them to mine those tailings again and make them more environmentally sustainable.
Over 1,000 scientists come to CLS each year, Pickering said, from all over Canada, as well as 28 countries.
The synchrotron has undergone upgrades in the past year, with a new linear accelerator installed in August. That being said, the synchrotron’s operation is still at a halt as they try to resolve issues that Pickering says are not unlike a musician playing a brand-new instrument.
“I actually play the cello… I know that a fine stringed instrument, you have to play it in order for it to sound good. If it’s new, it won’t sound very good, but (when) it’s played a lot and a good player plays it, it can reach its full potential.”
Some of the infrastructure replaced at CLS dated back to the 1960’s. While other synchrotrons use linear accelerators, the one being installed in Saskatoon is specific to this facility.
Pickering said there is some art involved in conditioning this new linear accelerator. They’re working closely with the vendor and reaching out to international experts to get the systems back online, with a target date of July.
Further upgrades are being considered. Long-term planning is in the very early stages, and could see the synchrotron capable of helping in research it couldn’t before.
Pickering explained that there’s been a change in how light beams are created in synchrotrons, allowing them to be made smaller and tighter.
Other facilities around the world have been upgrading their synchrotrons, with Pickering pointing to facilities in Illinois, California and the United Kingdom.
One long-term plan being considered is what CLS’s future would look like if they also began that upgrade process.
“It could mean that we could see smaller things. It means that we could do experiments faster … we could actually do some experiments that we can’t do at the moment.”
Pickering said changes to the machine need to come from a desire to enhance the science, and there has also been a conversation about what Canada is going to need for science in the future.
“We know there are a lot of concerns now with critical minerals and supply chains and securing our domestic supply chain. Canada’s synchrotron of the future can absolutely help with that,” Pickering said, listing many other examples of how CLS can help the country.
She couldn’t give a price for what an upgrade project like that would cost, but emphasized that it would be a huge undertaking.
Pickering said there are six or seven similar facilities in Canada that are national assets, and USask has two of them — VIDO and the Canadian Light Source.
She said the federal government and other partners need to be involved in an upgrade project like that, and that the province has been supportive as well.
Start dates for this project are still a ways off, Pickering said, adding that the planning scenarios currently stretch out to 2040.
“We would very much hope for an upgrade ahead of that if that’s the direction it is going.”
She said very detailed design and planning would be involved for a project of this magnitude.
