Paris

Chirac: spoke out for Soleil. Credit: AP

Claude Allègre, France's science minister, has publicly outlined his reasons for scrapping plans for a French synchrotron, and instead joining British plans to build a similar machine.

Arguing that money spent on large, ‘Big Science’ facilities should be rerouted into research projects, Allègre said in a written statement last week that to do this France had to team up with other European countries to build such facilities.

But political opposition to his decision remains strong. At a speech to a committee of the Academy of Sciences, president Jacques Chirac denounced Allègre's decision. “The Soleil project is one of the best scientific facilities that France can realize in the years to come with its scientific community for research and progress, notably in the sectors of health and industry,” said Chirac.

The staff at the LURE synchrotron, at Orsay outside Paris, who have been refusing to switch on their facility's 800 MeV and 1.85 GeV machines for the last three weeks in protest, demonstrated last week at the regional council of the Ile-de-France, which lobbied the government to host the facility. They were backed by the general council of the department of Essone.

In his statement, Allègre says that “to preserve the possibility of realizing other, more urgent, projects, we could have simply decided not to finance the synchrotron project, seen as too expensive and not urgent. We did not do that. The strategy adopted was to preserve the interests of the French scientific community, in particular the users of synchrotron radiation, in searching for a European solution.

“Are we in the future going to be lacking synchrotron time? Nothing indicates that. Of course, certain administrators and some users of these machines say so, and without doubt believe it, but experience teaches us that in this domain it is difficult to plan ahead.”

To boost research labs, emerging disciplines and the recruitment of young scientists, Allègre says he has decided to rebalance the budget by decreasing the funds spent on large facilities. To accomplish such a reduction, Allègre says his aim is to make any new, large facilities European.

The minister adds that he chose Diamond, the planned 3-GeV machine, because FF1.1 billion of the FF1.8 billion (US$286 million) needed will be paid by the Wellcome Trust, whereas the French and British governments will each pay FF350 million.

Scientists at LURE challenge some of his figures, arguing, for example, that Allègre underestimates the X-ray needs of French researchers. In contrast to Allègre's statement that French machines are not “saturated”, they argue that LURE accepts only 65 per cent of requests for beam-time.

The international synchrotron community has supported the protests, backing the claims of French scientists that they were largely ignored in the decision-making process. Among those behind LURE's cause are the British Nobel Prize winner Max Perutz and the directors of numerous European synchrotron facilities.

But France will only build Soleil if opposition emerges within Allègre's ruling Socialist party. Some members of the party have been critical, but prime minister Lionel Jospin has yet to make a statement on the matter.