View source for Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory

{{About|the former [[University of Saskatchewan]] [[LINAC]] accelerator laboratory|the present Canadian national synchrotron facility|Canadian Light Source}}
{{Infobox laboratory
|name             = Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory
|native_name      = 
|image            = SAL logo.jpg
|latin_name       = 
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|established      = 1964
|type             = Particle Accelerator
|budget           = 
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|research_field   = Nuclear Physics
|rector           = 
|chancellor       = 
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|provost          = 
|principal        = 
|vice_chancellor  = 
|dean             = 
|director         = Leon  Katz<br>Dennis Skopik
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|postgrad         = 
|doctoral         = <!-- No. of doctoral students -->
|profess          = <!-- No. of professional students -->
|postdoc          = 
|alumni           = 
|address          = 
|city             = [[Saskatoon]]
|state            = 
|province         =[[Saskatchewan]] 
|country          =[[Canada]] 
|coor             = <!-- Use {{Coord|LAT|LON|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} -->
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|nobel_laureates  = <!-- No. of Nobel Laureates for work done in lab -->
|website          = <!-- Use {{URL|example.edu}} -->
|logo             = 
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}}
[[image:SAL in Winter.jpg|thumb|right|400px|The above-ground SAL building, seen around 1994.]]
The '''Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory''' ('''SAL''') was a [[linear accelerator]] facility on the [[University of Saskatchewan]] campus in [[Saskatoon]], [[Saskatchewan]], [[Canada]].  The facility was constructed in 1962 at a cost of $1.7M under the direction of [[Leon Katz (physicist)|Leon Katz]].<ref>[http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/science_and_technology.html Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan  ]</ref> SAL was identified by the [[OECD]] as a National Large-Scale Facility.<ref>[http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/17/47/1901005.pdf OECD MEGASCIENCE FORUM  WORKING GROUP on REMOVING OBSTACLES  to INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION  REPORT of the SUB-GROUP on LEGISLATIVE and ADMINISTRATIVE BARRIERS  to MEGASCIENCE CO-OPERATION  ]</ref> SAL provided support for radiology, chemistry and sub-atomic physics research.

==Beginnings: 1947–1961==
[[image:SAL sod turning.jpg|thumb|right|200px|John Cockcroft turns the first sod for SAL. May 10, 1962.]]
[[image:Lean Katz at SAL.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Leon Katz with the LINAC, around 1964]]
Around 1947 members of the Department of [[Physics]] at the [[University of Saskatchewan]] decided to obtain a 25 [[MeV]] [[Betatron]]. The principal interest was in [[nuclear physics]], but they were also interested 
In the  possible therapeutic uses for the treatment of [[cancer]],<ref name="Beta" /> and they obtained support from then-Saskatchewan Premier [[Tommy Douglas]].<ref name="CMAJ">{{Cite journal
 |last1=Houston |first1=C. Stewart
 |last2=Fedoruk |first2=Sylvia O.
 |year=1985
 |title=Saskatchewan's role in radiotherapy research
 |journal=Canadian Medical Association Journal
 |volume=132 |issue=7
 |pages=854–864
 |doi=    
|pmid=3884123
 |pmc=1345880
 }}</ref> Funding was obtained from the [[Atomic Energy Control Board]]
, the [[National Research Council (Canada)|National Research Council]] (NRC), the National Cancer Institute, local cancer societies and the university. The machine was installed in summer 1948 in a new building built in one angle of the existing Physics department, connected to the main
building. It was manufactured by the [[Allis-Chalmers]] Company of [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]], and was very similar to the one being used at the time by [[Donald Kerst]] at the [[University of Illinois]].<ref name="Beta">{{Cite journal
 |last1=Harrington |first1=E. L.
 |last2=Haslam |first2=R. N. H.
 |last3=Johns |first3=H. E.
 |last4=Katz |first4=L.
 |year=1949
 |title=The Betatron Building and Installation at the University of Saskatchewan
 |journal=Science
 |volume=110 |issue=2855
 |pages=283–285
 |doi=10.1126/science.110.2855.283    
|bibcode = 1949Sci...110..283H |pmid=17830694}}</ref>
The first cancer patient was treated on Mar. 29, 1949 starting the really first concerted clinical investigation of the usefulness of the betatron as a radiotherapeutic tool, with over 300 patients treated in 17 years of operation. The success of the program led to the installation of the world's first [[cobalt-60]] source for [[radiotherapy]] at the university in 1951.<ref name="CMAJ" />

==Linear Accelerator: 1962–1983==
[[image:SAL layout 94.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Layout of the SAL facility in 1994]]
The construction of the [[linear particle accelerator|Linear Accelerator]] (LINAC) was announced in September 1961,<ref name="Brochure64" /> and was portrayed as the next logical step on the university's research path. The 80-foot electron accelerator tube was to create energy six times that of the betatron. The cost of the $1,750,000 facility was split between NRC and the university, with the NRC meeting the cost of the equipment and the university assuming the costs of the new building required to house the machine.<ref name="OCN">{{cite web | url=http://news.usask.ca/archived_ocn/May5-00/archives.html|title=Synchrotron predecessor, 'linear accelerator' was $1.75m addition to U of S in 1964| date=5 May 2000 |  accessdate=2012-08-05}}</ref>

Construction officially began on May 10, 1962, when [[John Cockcroft|Sir John Cockcroft]], [[Nobel Prize in Physics]] winner, ceremonially turned the first sod.<ref name="Brochure64" />
The Laboratory officially opened in early November 1964 with 75 visiting scientists from around the world in attendance, presenting papers and giving lectures over a period of several days, and hundreds of people showed up for the public open house.<ref name="OCN"/>
The first experiment was performed by a group from [[MIT]] in 1965.<ref name="Brochure94">''Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory'' University of Saskatchewan brochure, 1994</ref>

The accelerator was designed and constructed by [[Varian Associates]]. It was a four-section 140 MeV machine operating, with the first section designed for higher current (and thus lower energy) for [[radiation chemistry]]. A 270" magnetic system at the end of the first section could divert the electron beam for such research. For [[radiation protection]] purposes the accelerator and research facilities were housed in an underground building with 10 feet of compacted gravel above it and considerably thicker shielding over the regions where the full beam intensity was diverted into the experimental areas.<ref name="SAL">{{Cite journal
 |last1=Katz |first1=L.
 |last2=Beer |first2=G. A.
 |last3=McArthur |first3=D. E.
 |last4=Caplan |first4=H. S.
 |year=1967
 |title=The electron-scattering facility at the Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory
 |journal=Canadian Journal of Physics
 |volume=45 |issue=11
 |pages=3721–3736
 |doi=10.1139/p67-311
|bibcode = 1967CaJPh..45.3721K }}</ref>
Part of the ancillary equipment included a magnetic [[spectrometer]] mounted on a rotating platform, modified from a [[naval]] [[weapon mount|gunmount]] supplied by the US [[Office of Naval Research]].

The initial experimental program included [[inelastic scattering|inelastic electron scattering]], [[photodisintegration]], radiation chemistry, [[biophysics]] and [[radiation physics]].<ref name="Brochure64">''The Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory'' University of Saskatchewan brochure, 1964</ref>
During the 1970s SAL regularly published important nuclear physics results, and the LINAC was upgraded to 220 MeV in 1975, and 300 MeV in 1980.<ref name="Brochure94" />

==EROS: 1984–1996==
Linear accelerators have an inherently low [[duty cycle]], and one solution to this is to add a storage ring - a so-called pulse-stretcher ring (PSR). The short particle bursts from the LINAC are injected into the storage ring, and in the time between two
bursts the circulating electrons are slowly extracted from it, to give a nearly continuous beam. A PSR had been proposed for SAL as far back as 1971, and much of the pioneering work on PSRs had been performed by SAL scientists.<ref name="Pulse">{{cite web | url=http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/e94/PDF/EPAC1994_0062.PDF|title=Review of CW Electron Machines| year=1994 | accessdate=2012-08-03}}</ref>
In 1983 funding was obtained for a PSR for SAL,<ref name="Brochure94" /> and the resulting machine was dubbed the Electron Ring of Saskatchewan (EROS).<ref name="EROS">{{cite web | url=http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/p89/PDF/PAC1989_0022.PDF|title=Operating results of the Electron Ring of Saskatchewan (EROS)| year=1989 | accessdate=2012-08-05}}</ref>
As an economical solution, the ring was squeezed into the existing building by the "ingenious expedient" of hanging it from the ceiling.<ref name="NuP50">{{cite web | url=http://media.cns-snc.ca/history/fifty_years/hanna.html|title=Fission and Physics in Canada | year=1989 | accessdate=2012-08-05}}</ref> 
An energy compression system was also installed in the late 1980s, and by 1990, with EROS operational, SAL was once more at the forefront of medium energy nuclear physics. In 1991 the underground experimental area EA2 was enlarged to house a new electron scattering spectrometer. By 1994 SAL was operating [[24/7]], delivering about 5000 hours of beam for experiments per year.<ref name="Brochure94" />

By the mid 1990s, the declining interest in sub-atomic science in Canada, and the need to refurbish the aging LINAC, convinced NSERC to phase out use of the LINAC.<ref name="CLS70">[http://media.cns-snc.ca/history/Canadian_Light_Source.html "Synchrotron: Canadian Light Source 70 years in the making'"],''The Star-Phoenix'' 20 October 2004</ref> 
In 1994 an NSERC panel had proposed that a [[synchrotron light source|synchrotron]] should be built in Canada,<ref name="CLS">{{Cite journal
 |last=Bancroft |first=G. M.
 |year=2004
 |title=The Canadian Light Source — History and scientific prospects
 |journal=Canadian Journal of Chemistry
 |volume=82 |pages=1028–1042
 |doi=10.1139/v04-027   
}}</ref>  and SAL director Dennis Skopik convinced the university to bid to host the new facility.<ref name="CLS70" />

==The Canadian Light Source and the end of SAL==
{{main|Canadian Light Source}}
[[image:SAL LINAC.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The SAL LINAC, seen at the CLS in 2011]]

The two Universities bidding to host the new synchrotron facility - the Canadian Light Source (CLS) were Saskatchewan and the University of Western Ontario (UWO). NSERC set up a committee of international experts to recommend one of the two sites.<ref name="CLS" /> UWO, which operated the existing [[Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility]] at an American synchrotron, was the clear favourite. One committee member insisted there was no need to travel to Saskatoon in the dead of winter before deciding, as he had visited UWO and was convinced it should be the place. However, in 1996 the committee, which did in fact visit Saskatoon, recommended that the CLS be built in Saskatchewan. The reluctant member had been so impressed by SAL and its personnel that he changed his mind.<ref name="CLS70" />

[[Western Economic Diversification]] funding was obtained for 1996–1999 to allow SAL to "phase out its subatomic physics work and retain its staff to undertake detailed engineering design work, research Canadian supply sources and move design implementation forward on the CLS project".<ref name="WED">{{cite web | url=http://www.lightsource.ca/media/news97.php|title=Transitional funding approved for Saskatchewan Accelerator Laboratory| date=22 December 1997 | accessdate=2012-06-08}}</ref> 
Funding still had to be found for the new facility, and it was not until 1999, that the full funding needed was awarded.<ref name="CLS" />

At the start of the CLS construction project in 1999, SAL formally ceased operations and all staff members were transferred into a new [[nonprofit organization|not-for-profit]] [[corporation]], Canadian Light Source Inc., CLSI, which had primary responsibility for the technical design, construction and operation of the new facility.<ref name="CLSI">{{cite web | url=http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/e04/papers/weilh04.pdf|title=Industrial involvement in the construction of synchrotron lightsources| year=2004 | accessdate=2012-07-28}}</ref>
The end-point tagger was transferred to [[MAX-Lab]] at [[Lund University]]. 
In 2002 the SAL LINAC was refurbished to operate at 250 MeV and now serves as part of the injection system for the CLS storage ring.<ref name="Injection">{{cite web | url=http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/e04/papers/thpkf008.pdf| title=Injection system for the Canadian Light Source | year=2004 | accessdate=2012-07-07}}</ref> The current CLS building, finished in 2001, incorporates the old SAL building, with much larger addition built directly adjoining it to house the synchrotron storage ring. The former SAL underground experimental area EA2 now houses a 35MeV LINAC<ref name="isotope2">{{cite web | url=http://accelconf.web.cern.ch/accelconf/IPAC2012/papers/thxa01.pdf|title=Producing medical isotopes using X-rays| year=2012 | accessdate=2012-07-27}}</ref> which is part of a CLS project to produce the medical isotope [[technetium-99m]], a mainstay of [[nuclear medicine]].<ref name="CBCisotopes">{{cite web|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-synchrotron-to-make-medical-isotopes-1.1121457 |title=Sask. Synchrotron to make medical isotopes |date=24 November 2011 |access-date=2012-07-15}}</ref>

==External links==
*[http://www.lightsource.ca Canadian Light Source]

==References==
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{{University of Saskatchewan}}

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[[Category:Research institutes in Canada]]
[[Category:University of Saskatchewan]]
[[Category:1961 establishments in Saskatchewan]]
[[Category:1999 disestablishments in Saskatchewan]]
[[Category:Particle physics facilities]]
[[Category:Laboratories in Canada]]