~ - _ _ _ _ _ _ ~ ~ ~ ~ Opening ceremony of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) The ESRF situated in the beautiful mountain setting of Grenoble. (Photograph reproduced with permission from Artechnique Seyssem France) On September 30 1994 the official inauguration ceremony of the European Synchrotron Radiation facility (ESRF) took place in Grenoble France. The ESRF is presently the world’s most powerful dedicated storage ring for applications of synchrotron radiation. A number of representatives of the 12 European participating countries and many scientists and science administrators attended this short but festive official ceremony. There were official speeches by the French Minister of Higher Education and Research the mayor of the city of Grenoble and the President of the ESRF council and its Director-General followed by a banquet. The highlight of the inauguration event was a guided tour of the remarkable installation itself the impressive-looking storage ring (with a circumference of 844 m) and the many experimental set- ups some ready and now routinely available to outside users some in development or in the planning stage.The event took place in the spacious experimental hall where bikes are used by the busy staff to move from one location to the other. The European synchrotron is a remarkable achievement with a history going back to 1977 when a first report arguing the need to build a European high energy storage ring appeared. This led eventually to an agreement which was signed at the end of 1988 by 11 European countries (Belgium Denmark Finland France Italy Germany Great Britain Norway Spain Sweden and Switzerland) with a 12th country (Holland) becoming associated in 1990.The Society ESRF was created in 1989 and work on the 6 GeV linear accelerator and the storage ring started in 1990. The first electrons were injected in early 1992 and from 1993 onwards selected experiments were possible within the installation. The first official external users have been running their experiments since the beginning of September 1994. ESRF now employs about 400 people. They worked hard and efficiently to have the machine ready in time and within budget and with specifications far exceeding the original design parameters. From 1995 onwards a total of 5000 hours of machine time will be available to outside users (6000 in 1996) on an expanding number of beamlines.The ESRF staff will eventually build 30 ‘public beamlines’ all making full use of insertion devices (undulators and wigglers). Each beamline is adjusted for use with one or more specific methodologies. Individual outside ‘collaborative research groups CRG will be able to build about 10 additional beamlines using the radiation of the bending magnets of the storage ring. Seven public beamlines and 3 CRGs are presently operational (September 1994). The ESRF is the first of the third generation synchrotron sources and will be a unique research tool until the 7 GeV Advanced Photon Source (APS) in Argonne National Laboratories (near Chicago) and the 8 GeV Spring-8 in Harima Science Garden City (near Tokyo) become operational.The third 12N Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry January 1995 Vol. 10generation synchrotrons are very general tools for basic and applied research with applications in physics (e.g. solid-state physics and spectroscopy) crystallography molecular biology medicine material science etc. They are characterized by the high brilliance and unique polarization properties in a continuous spectrum ranging from the mm region to the gamma-ray regime in extremely short pulses (50 ps) and at high stability. The ESRF is a unique tool for analytical chemistry and chemical analysis. Beamline 24 will be designed for microscopical X-ray fluorescence analysis (see K. Janssens et al. JAAS 9 1994 9 151) with possibilities to perform sub-microscopical mapping of the elemental composition and speciation ability by performing analysis in the near absorption edge region of particular elements. Beamline 23 will be devoted to X-ray fluorescence excitation spectroscopy on ultra-dilute systems. Both beamlines are in the design phase. Beamline 11 will be devoted to nuclear resonance and Mossbauer scattering. Several other public and CRG beamlines will enable X-ray absorption spectrometry for the study of local structure and the chemical environment around selected atoms. Surface and interface analysis and characterization will be possible on several other beamlines. FREDDY ADAMS Universiteitsplein-1 B-2610 Antwerpen Wilrijk Belgium Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry January 1995 Vol. 10 13N