Advanced Photon Source reopens at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont after being upgraded

LEMONT, Ill. (WLS) -- One of the most complex high-tech machines on Earth is back up and running Wednesday in Lemont at the Argonne National Laboratory.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, U.S. Department of Energy officials and Argonne representatives gathered to celebrate the upgrade of the "Advanced Photon Source."

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The machine is responsible for some of the most innovative research in the world.

Argonne National Laboratory's newly-upgraded Advanced Photon Source, or APS, is open again for research. The machine is used in nearly every scientific field from drugs and medical treatments to advanced battery technology and clean energy.

"You are driving history-altering innovation, right here in our home state of Illinois," Pritzker said.

The Advanced Photon Source features a ring so large Wrigley Field in it's entirety could fit inside. The technology is complex, but boiled down, the APS uses bright X-Rays to see really small things in high resolution allowing scientists to observe virtually any material at an atomic level.

"Not only will it shed light on more effective pharmaceuticals and how atoms interact, but also solve some of the biggest mysteries in history," Argonne National Laboratory Director Paul Kearns said. "The original APS examined moon rocks, T-Rex bones and mummies."

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Jim Kerby, the project director of the Advanced Proton Source upgrade, said the Advanced Photon Source is one of five in the world and is by far the most advanced. The project cost $815 million, with the funding coming from the U.S. Department of Energy via taxpayer money.

"The impact of this facility is off the charts, and it's just frankly at the end of the day we are stewards of taxpayer money, and we do everything can using industry and everything else to deliver on that in the most efficient way possible," Kerby said.

Wednesday's ribbon-cutting comes a day after the news of $140 million in federal investment for quantum computing research in Illinois.

"I'm particularly excited about how APS is helping build out our quantum computing infrastructure," Pritzker said. "Over the past few years the General Assembly and I have invested in making Illinois the undisputed global capital for quantum, and Argonne is a critical piece of that vision."

More than 5,000 scientists from around the world use the machine every year, and, perhaps most notably, Argonne officials said the technology has directly led to two Nobel Prizes in chemistry.