SSRL enters the 1996 Fiscal Year with considerable optimism and enthusiasm. Thanks in good measure to the efforts of the users of SSRL and the other DOE facilities, both houses of Congress have voted for full funding of the Department of Energy's Scientific Facilities Initiative. Still remaining in the appropriations process are the Conference Committee report, subsequent acceptance of that report by both Houses of Congress and a Presidential signature. At the present time, however, it appears as if there will be full funding for the Facilities Initiative without any significant resulting decreases in the core funding of the Department of Energy's Basic Energy Sciences or Health and Environmental Research programs. Nevertheless, the funding situation always remains uncertain until the appropriations process is completed and the DOE makes it allocations.
It does seem likely that SSRL will receive an operating fund increase of about four million dollars per year and be able to run for users for about nine months this fiscal year. This major change in the way SSRL functions, plus shifting emphases within SSRL, are leading us to consider whether our present organizational structure is well suited to the demands we will face over the coming years. When SSRL inherited SPEAR in 1992, it became necessary to focus a very large fraction of our technical staff on SPEAR, with the goal of changing it from a high energy physics accelerator to one optimized for synchrotron radiation research. A large portion of the engineering and technical staff were "housed" in SSRL's Accelerator Department. Over the past 3 years, this team has performed its role with great effectiveness, so that SPEAR's emittance has been reduced by a factor of four, the ring is functioning quite reliably and beam stability has increased markedly.
With this success, we can now achieve greater balance between the machine goals and the objectives of good user support, beam line improvements, full-time SPEAR operation and development of the X-ray free electron laser. Hence, we are considering how to organize ourselves best for these tasks and what new personnel should be hired. In the process, we have consulted with the entire staff, with the Users' Organization Executive Committee and with the SSRL faculty. As we begin to develop one or two options, further consultation will take place. We expect to have completed planning and reorganization by the Users' Meeting. There seems little doubt, though, that we will seek to enlarge the scientific staff in the X-ray materials area.
Although there has been a heavy focus on SPEAR during the past few years, beam line development has not been neglected. The structural biology Beam Line 9, funded by DOE's Office of Health and Environmental Research, is expected to begin operation during 1996. It will contain two branches devoted to protein crystallography and a third for x-ray absorption spectroscopy, thus adding enormous capabilities for structural biology research at SSRL.
Work on Beam Line 11, which is being designed for environmentally related X-ray absorption spectroscopy studies, has started with initial funding from the Chemical Sciences program of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The beam exit port has been installed in SPEAR and several alcove components are presently being designed. SSRL expects that sufficient FY '96 funding will be provided for the purchase of a wiggler and several long-lead optical components, and design and construction of alcove beam transport components will be continued. Completion of the beam line construction is projected for FY '98.
Finally, we continue to progress towards the 1-2 Å free electron laser known as the Linear Coherent Light Source (LCLS). Plans are underway for a critical test of the theory of self-amplified spontaneous emission with startup from noise, which is the mechanism by which the LCLS operates. In addition, a facility for testing another critical path item, the low-emittance electron gun, is being constructed. As we understand more of the science which might be performed with the very coherent, short x-ray pulses to be produced, we grow increasingly excited.