By Yujin Sakai,
Dubbed a "giant microscope," a next-generation facility that can analyze particles down to the minutest details, potentially opening pathways for advancements in material sciences and drug development, began operations in April on a Tohoku University campus in Sendai, northeastern Japan.
Boasting cutting-edge technology, NanoTerasu, constructed via a public-private regional partnership, utilizes synchrotron radiation in which electromagnetic waves such as X-rays are generated by an electron accelerator.
As the facility enables scientists to view materials at the level of nanometer, or one-billionth of a meter, there are high expectations that it will spur innovation for various applications in industrial development, including for maintaining food quality standards.
"We are creating state-of-the-art results which will raise Japan's competitiveness," Masataka Kado, NanoTerasu's public relations spokesperson who was also involved in the facility's development, said after it began operating on April 1.
The massive facility has a 110-meter-long linear accelerator and a circular accelerator with a circumference of about 350 meters, with a total construction cost of about 38 billion yen ($243 million).
The facility can accelerate electrons to almost the speed of light and emits synchrotron radiation under the influence of a magnetic field, with the process involving highly concentrated light one billion times more intense than sunlight. It mainly handles soft X-rays -- X-rays with longer wavelengths.
Among other institutions, the National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology and the Photon Science Innovation Center are involved in running the facility.
NanoTerasu can observe nanoscale phenomena that can give industry crucial insights, giving companies an edge over their rivals in product competitiveness.
For example, the facility can analyze the behavior of electrons in materials to gain insights into chemical elements on used rubber tires in order to see how deterioration affects them at a nano-level, or visualize the functions of proteins in drugs to gauge their efficacy.
It is these sorts of insights that have given inspiration to the facility's name. "Terasu" is the Japanese term for shining a light on something.
For many years in Japan, the SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility in Sayo, Hyogo Prefecture, which uses hard X-rays to analyze the structure of materials, had been the dominant facility.
But according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in recent years, emphasis has also been placed on analyzing the state and function of materials using soft X-rays.
Some facilities have emerged in Europe and the United States that are 100 times more effective than facilities in Japan. NanoTerasu is the innovation of studies led by the ministry that got underway in 2014 to reverse the performance gap.
Being at the forefront of technology, the government is making efforts to lower obstacles to its use. Sendai, which has been given the right to use the NanoTerasu facility for 2,000 hours a year, has prepared a system that allows locally operating businesses to use it for a fee of about 40,000 yen an hour.
Miyagi Prefecture, which contributed to the development costs, is supporting the project by offering fee reductions and exemptions. Sendai is the capital of the prefecture.
To demonstrate the usefulness of synchrotron radiation facilities, the prefectural government held a meeting in March, before the launch of the NanoTerasu, to report on the results of companies that have successfully used existing facilities.
Sendai-based Iris Ohyama Inc., known as a market leader in innovative home appliances, reported after private-sector businesses joined the facility's test operations in March on how the quality of tuna changes when it thaws.
The company was able to examine how the moisture released from thawing can spoil the fish's taste at a nanometer level. "If we can understand the mechanism (of quality change), we can have confidence in our product development," said a company official.
Sendai Mayor Kazuko Kori said she hopes the new facility will serve as a "catalyst for local industrial development."
The regional Tohoku Economic Federation estimates that over the next decade, the economic effect from NanoTerasu's operation will be 1.9 trillion yen.
A Sendai city official said, "We would like to make the significance of this facility known to the public so that it does not become a white elephant."
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