Memorable Years for Synchrotron Radiation at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk

In the early 1970s, the Institute of Nuclear Physics (INP) in Novosibirsk was a unique place in the world of accelerator physics. There were three operational electron-positron storage rings at the institution. All together, they covered beam operational energies from 200 MeV up to 2.2 GeV. It was not a big surprise for the developers of these state-of-the-art machines when the first users of synchrotron radiation showed up at the doorsteps of the Institute of Nuclear Physics, eager to take advantage of such unique radiation sources. And how very unique they were! Compared with several already relatively well-established operational synchrotrons around the world, such as DESY in Hamburg, NINA in Darsbury, and three synchrotrons in the Soviet Union—one at the Physical Institute in Pakhra, another at the Tomsk Polytechnical Institute, and a third at the Erevan Physical Institute—the storage ring sources provided much more stable and brighter radiation beams. Several storage rings built at that time in locations such as Japan, the US, and France were also on the verge of becoming available for synchrotron radiation users.