News from the Chinese Academy of Sciences says that China's largest big-science equipment and big-science platform so far �C the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility has started the first-phase project of its main construction.

With a total investment of 1.2 billion yuan it is expected be completed and put to operation in the first half of 2009. Once it is completed it will be the world��s fourth largest in terms of energy and will have a life span of more than 30 years.

By People's Daily Online