Editing Diamond Light Source (section)

== Design, construction and finance ==
[[File:Diamond Snow Outside PlateBlur.jpg|thumb|Diamond Light Source in snow, 2018.]]
The Diamond synchrotron is the largest UK-funded scientific facility to be built in the UK since the [[Nimrod (synchrotron)|Nimrod proton synchrotron]] which was sited at the [[Rutherford Appleton Laboratory]] in 1964. Nearby facilities include the [[ISIS neutron source|ISIS Neutron and Muon Source]], the [[Central Laser Facility]], and the laboratories at Harwell and Culham (including the [[Joint European Torus]] (JET) project). It replaced the [[Synchrotron Radiation Source]], a second-generation synchrotron at the [[Daresbury Laboratory]] in Cheshire.

Diamond produced its first user beam towards the end of January 2007, and was formally opened by [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] on 19 October 2007.<ref>[http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/Media/LatestNews/October2007.html Diamond News: Her Majesty The Queen Officially Opens Diamond Light Source]</ref><ref>{{Cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6331883.stm |title = 'Super-scope' opens for business|date = 2007-02-05}}</ref>

===Construction===
A design study during the 1990s was completed in 2001 by scientists at Daresbury and construction began following the creation of the operating company, Diamond Light Source Ltd.<ref name="etymology">The name DIAMOND was originally conceived by Mike Poole (the originator of the DIAMOND project) and stood as an acronym meaning DIpole And Multipole Output for the Nation at Daresbury.  With the location now being Oxfordshire, not Daresbury, the name reflects the synchrotron light being both hard (referring to the "hard" X-ray region of the [[electromagnetic spectrum]]) and bright.</ref>

The construction costs of £260m covered the synchrotron building, the accelerators inside it, the first seven experimental stations (beamlines) and the adjacent office block, Diamond House.

===Governance===
The facility is operated by Diamond Light Source Ltd,<ref>[http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/About/Company.html Diamond Light Source Ltd] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130707191907/http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Home/About/Company.html |date=2013-07-07 }}</ref> a [[joint venture]] company established in March 2002. The company receives 86% of its funding from the UK Government via the [[Science and Technology Facilities Council]] (STFC) and 14% from the [[Wellcome Trust]].