RECENT PROGRESS OF THE SPring-8 FACILITY

Since October 1997, the SPring-8 facility has been operated well and provided high quality photon beams for users. Over this period, various kinds of improvements have been carried out to achieve brilliant and stable photon beams and to make the most of 8-GeV potentiality. At the same time R&D has continued for future radiation sources. In these activities, the largest achievement has been the construction of magnet-free long straight sections (LSS's). Owing to a sufficient preparatory study, the LSS's were successfully commissioned and user operation was re-started in October 2000. This paper presents a recent progress overview of the SPring-8 facility.