Dennis Skopik convinced the University to bid to host the new facility. The Canadian Light Source and the end of SAL The two Universities bidding to host the new synchrotron facility - the Canadian Light Source (CLS) were Saskatchewan and the University of Western Ontario (UWO). NSERC set up a committee of international experts to recommend one of the two sites. UWO, which operated the existing Canadian Synchrotron Radiation Facility at an American synchrotron, was the clear favourite. One committee member insisted there was no need to travel to Saskatoon in the dead of winter before deciding, as he had visited UWO and was convinced it should be the place. However, in 1996 the committee, which did in fact visit Saskatoon, recommended that the CLS be built in Saskatchewan. The reluctant member had been so impressed by SAL and its personnel that he changed his mind. Western Economic Diversification funding was obtained for 1996–1999 to allow SAL to "phase out its subatomic physics work and retain its staff to undertake detailed engineering design work, research Canadian supply sources and move design implementation forward on the CLS project". Funding still had to be found for the new facility, and it was not until 1999, that the full funding needed was awarded. At the start of the CLS construction project in 1999, SAL formally ceased operations and all staff members were transferred into a new not-for-profit corporation, Canadian Light Source Inc., CLSI, which had primary responsibility for the technical design, construction and operation of the new facility. The end-point tagger was transferred to MAX-Lab at Lund University. In 2002 the SAL LINAC was refurbished to operate at 250 MeV and now serves as part of the injection system for the CLS storage ring. The current CLS building, finished in 2001, incorporates the old SAL building, with much larger addition built directly adjoining it to house the synchrotron storage ring. The former SAL underground experimental area EA2 now houses a 35MeV LINAC which is part of a CLS project to produce the medical isotope technetium-99m, a mainstay of nuclear medicine. External links Canadian Light Source References Research institutes in Canada University of Saskatchewan 1961 establishments in Saskatchewan 1999 disestablishments in Saskatchewan Particle physics facilities Laboratories in Canada