Vic opposition claims synchrotron cost blow-out

Political sparring over the Australian National Synchrotron raised its head again last week, when Victoria's opposition deputy leader Phil Honeywood claimed that the project would cost the state AUD$537 million over the next decade, and called the project a white elephant.

But the Bracks government said the statements were based on an old business plan, and reiterated that the cost to build the synchrotron facility would be $157 million plus an additional $49 million to come from other sources for the beamlines.

Rob Lewis, professor of x-ray and synchrotron physics at Monash University, said it was difficult and unfair to compare the costs of constructing and running Australia's synchrotron to those overseas, in particular as some of Honeywood's estimates were based on the running costs of older synchrotron facilities.

And he emphasised that while political opinions on the necessity of Australia having a synchrotron varied, the scientific community was firmly behind it.

"There's no doubt, practically ever scientist in Australia thinks that it is not only a good thing but an essential thing to do," he said.

Today, the Australian Academy of Science criticised an editorial in The Age newspaper that questioned the Bracks government's wisdom in backing the synchrotron.

Prof John White, chair of the academy's National Committee for Crystallography, said the initiative was Australia's best chance to provide synchrotron facilities comparable to those in other nations.

The academy said its support for a synchrotron was based on a 15-year program, started in 1987, to grow the national capability of the R&D user base in synchrotron research in scientific and business communities.

"The synchrotron has been a long time in the planning," White said. "The Australian Synchrotron Research Program (ASRP) was started in 1996 with federal government funding, to help Australian scientists access synchrotrons overseas.

"On the basis of the growth in the current R&D user community and the projection of these numbers to at least several hundred by 2004, the National Committee for Crystallography strongly supports construction of an Australian Synchrotron."

The academy urged funding agencies to cooperate to optimise the success of the project.