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Britain’s new £200 million synchrotron X-ray source will be built at
the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Oxford, the government announced this
week. Researchers from the Daresbury Laboratory near Manchester, home to
Britain’s existing synchrotron, who lobbied hard to host the new machine, vowed
to fight the decision. “It would have been cheaper to build it and run it up
here,” says Vin Goulding, a union representative at Daresbury, adding that it
will lead to a huge loss of scientific talent overseas. Many believe pressure
from the French government and the Wellcome Trust, who are helping fund the
synchrotron, swayed the government towards Rutherford Appleton.