Following a yearlong shut down for a major upgrade, APS resumed operations over the last few weeks by first delivering beam to five core APS operated beamlines, and on July 03, 2024, HPCAT received its first x-ray beam post-upgrade in the 16-ID-A station.

It took significant effort to be first in line, following five core APS operated beamlines, to receive x-rays. Our sincere thanks to various colleagues from the APS commissioning-restart team.

HPCAT’s upgrade, encompassing all layout/instrumentation and enhancements, has been planned in a phased approach. With ~$10M invested in key infrastructure so far, we are planning to compete for the remainder of the estimated $14M total cost and ultimately complete resumption across all nine stations (five experimental and four optics stations) over the next year. We have over 800 yearly users that are eager to get back to work at HPCAT/APS.

We have a lot of work to get done still, including technical commissioning, steering the beam to the 16-ID-B experimental station, and ultimately getting to scientific commissioning and resumption of all nine HPCAT stations over the next year ... but one step at a time. For now, we just want to share the good news on this major step in the process.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone back at HPCAT soon – we will keep you updated with additional details on return of user experiments and our progress.