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Science 3 December 1999:
Vol. 286. no. 5446, p. 1825
DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5446.1825c
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ScienceScope

The saga of where to build DIAMOND, Britain's new $290 million synchrotron x-ray source, has taken some new twists. Just as he was expected to announce which of two sites had won the machine, Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers last week told Parliament that he will put off the choice until next month pending the completion of two new government studies.

Along with the delay came word that the charitable Wellcome Trust, which is footing $184 million of DIAMOND's construction costs, favors one competitor: the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) near Oxford (Science, 22 October, p. 655). Indeed, trust officials asserted in a statement last week that their discussions with Byers's department and the French research ministry, which is contributing $57 million to the project, "have been based on the understanding that the ... RAL site was the preferred location." Wellcome said DIAMOND would face engineering problems at RAL's rival, the Daresbury Laboratory near Manchester.

But such claims are "flimsy," charges physicist Graham Bushnell-Wye, who helps run the "DIAMOND at Daresbury" campaign. And he predicts Daresbury is going to do just fine in the new studies, which will weigh engineering issues and opinions in the scientific community.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)