China reports milestone in operating nuclear accelerator

The tandem accelerator in China's first major accelerator lab on nuclear physics had safely run for 100,000 hours by last week, according to a Wednesday statement from the China Institute of Atomic Energy.

The U.S. made HI-13 accelerator was installed in the Beijing-based national lab in the early 1980s and provides over 3,300 hours of ion beam each year for both Chinese and overseas researchers, said the statement.

It noted that the achievement should be taken as a milestone in China's research in low-energy nuclear physics, which had also lead to progress in nuclear data analysis and electronic components for space activities.

In addition, the statement briefed the ongoing upgrading project of the accelerator lab, which is expected to be finished by April 2014.

China aims to build itself into an innovative country by 2020, when scientific progress will contribute to nearly 60 percent of the nation's economic growth, according to a national outline for scientific and technological development (2006-2020).

Last year, China's research and development spending surged 21.9 percent year-on-year to 861 billion yuan (139.7 billion U.S. dollars),representing 1.83 percent of its gross domestic product in 2011.

At the same time, China spent 39.6 billion yuan on basic scientific research projects, and the country constructed 130 national engineering research centers and 119 national engineering laboratories, according to a report from China's National Bureau of Statistics.