POSCO said on Sept. 29 that the construction of a 4th-generation synchrotron radiation facility, aimed at increasing the competitiveness of cutting-edge industries (e.g. biotech, clean energy, nontechnology and semiconductor), had been completed in the southeastern city of Pohang, making South Korea the third country in the world to have it.
The synchrotron radiation facility creates synchrotron radiation, one of the brightest lights on earth, and functions like a "super-microscope" which films the position and motion of atoms in condensed and living matter.
The 4th-generation facility is capable of creating a synchrotron light source, 10 billion times brighter the third-generation one and a quintillion times brighter than the sun, therefore enabling researchers to better analyze living cells in femto-seconds.
This landmark facility is expected to speed up advances in the fields of materials science, IT, semiconductor and medicine. In particular, the facility will play a leading role in putting South Korea ahead of others in new drug development, high-efficiency solar cells and nanotechnology.
