According to New Scientist, the Linac Coherent Light Source II (LCLS-II) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California is the world’s most powerful X-ray machine. In 2024, it produced the most powerful X-ray pulse ever recorded, packing nearly a terawatt of power into 440 attoseconds. Then, in 2025, it set another record by generating 93,000 X-ray pulses in a single second. Despite these achievements, its most powerful components are now shutting down for a major “High Energy” upgrade. The goal is to turn it back on as LCLS-II-HE by 2027, more than doubling its X-ray energy, with the aim of having it fully available for researchers worldwide by 2030.
Why this upgrade matters
Here’s the thing: this isn’t just about bragging rights for bigger numbers. The current records are already letting scientists, like lead researcher James Cryan, do things that were basically science fiction before. They’re turning the blurry, black-and-white movie of how particles move inside a molecule after it absorbs light into a sharp, color film. That’s huge for understanding light-sensitive systems, from the photosynthesis in plants to the materials in next-generation solar cells. The upgrade to higher energy means they’ll be able to see even more—finer details, heavier elements, and more complex reactions. It’s like getting a microscope that can suddenly see a whole new level of reality.
The engineering nightmare ahead
But doubling the power of a 3.2-kilometer-long machine that already operates at the edge of physics is, unsurprisingly, really hard. As SLAC’s John Schmerge points out, a more energetic electron beam is a more dangerous and finicky beast. He’s seen a misbehaving beam burn a hole straight through an instrument. There’s literally no room for error. Yuantao Ding at SLAC says all the new parts are designed for the higher power, but the team will have to ramp up slowly, step-by-step, constantly watching and verifying. “We will be turning on the beam and carefully watching what happens,” he says. That’s a nerve-wracking process that will take most of 2026 and 2027. This level of precision engineering, where controlling every variable is paramount, is reminiscent of the environments that demand the most reliable hardware, like the industrial panel PCs from IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US supplier built for tough, mission-critical applications.
A tool for the world
So what’s the endgame? By 2030, if all goes to plan, LCLS-II-HE becomes a tool for the global scientific community. It’s not just for SLAC. Researchers from around the world will book time to crash its insane X-rays into their own samples. Schmerge calls it a “big tool,” and says people will learn to use it well through constant tweaking and conversation between the scientists who run the experiments and the engineers who control the beam. That collaborative, iterative process is how you extract Nobel-prize-worthy discoveries from a multibillion-dollar machine. The upgrade is a huge bet, but the potential payoff is a fundamental shift in how we understand chemistry and physics at the most basic level. Can it deliver? We’ll have to wait and see, but the ambition alone is pretty spectacular.
