The largest scientific infrastructure ever built in Brazil cost R$ 2.8 billion and now gains four new lines to reveal materials, microchips, and even microorganisms at the atomic scale; meet Sirius.

Written by Romário Pereira de Carvalho

Published on 18/05/2026 at 21:38

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With R$ 800 million from the New PAC, the Sirius accelerator activates four new research lines, strengthens studies on an atomic scale, and advances integration with the Orion laboratory, NB4 biological containment

The expansion of Sirius, a particle accelerator located at CNPEM in Campinas, was inaugurated by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this Monday (18), with R$ 800 million from the New PAC to expand research on an atomic scale.

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Largest scientific infrastructure gains new fronts

The complex is considered the largest and most complex scientific infrastructure ever built in Brazil. The new funding, coordinated by MCTI within the technical schedule of the New PAC, will be used to activate four advanced research fronts.

With this expansion, the total federal investment applied to the fourth-generation synchrotron reaches R$ 2.8 billion. The amount consolidates Sirius as one of the most advanced molecular physics hubs on the planet.

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Four lines expand the capacity of Sirius

The new experimental structures were named Tatu, Sapucaia, Quati, and Sapê. Each will function as an autonomous unit for capturing high-brightness radiation, produced by the accelerated movement of electrons.

The goal is to map samples in nanometric dimensions. The Sapê station will focus on high-complexity tests aimed at characterizing superconducting and semiconductor materials, with direct support to the semiconductor industry.

Technical reports from CNPEM governance indicate that this front will contribute to the development of microchips. The Tatu, Sapucaia, and Quati lines will work in an integrated manner in other research areas.

These three fronts will monitor, on an atomic scale, arable soils, metal alloys of strategic minerals, and complex protein structures. The machinery allows observing substances under extreme pressure and temperature conditions.

Project Orion will have NB4 biological containment

During the official agenda, the president inspected the civil engineering works of Orion, a maximum biological containment laboratory of NB4 level, budgeted at R$ 1.4 billion and installed next to the complex.

The outsourced construction company’s forecast is to complete the structural closure of the building by the end of the current political year.

Orion will be the world’s first maximum security facility physically coupled to a synchrotron light source.

This integration will allow scientists to use the high resolution of Sirius to map the proliferation of highly transmissible microorganisms without breaking the vacuum barriers. The connection requires precision technical solutions.

The general director of CNPEM, Antonio José Roque da Silva, highlighted that the connection between Orion and Sirius required unprecedented vibration dampers.

The technical effort increased the participation of national suppliers and inputs to 85% of the civil work cost.

Program targets radical innovation in health

The ceremony in Campinas also marked the launch of the Foundation Stone of the National Program for Radical Innovation in Health.

The articulation aims to create channels for technology transfer between the accelerator studies and public laboratories linked to SUS.

Representatives from the Ministry of Health stated that the immediate priority is to reduce the internal market’s dependence on foreign Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. The new lines should accelerate tests of high-tech medicines and vaccines.

With the facilities approved, the capacity to absorb postgraduate research and private corporate projects at Sirius is expected to double.

The usage regime provides for open and free submission of proposals by Brazilian and foreign scientists.

The proposals will undergo peer review, keeping access conditioned to technical evaluation. Thus, the new structure expands the scientific use of the complex and strengthens the connection between advanced research, industry, and public health.

With information from ND Mais.

The largest scientific infrastructure ever built in Brazil cost R$ 2.8 billion and now gains four new lines to reveal materials, microchips, and even microorganisms at the atomic scale; meet Sirius.

With R$ 800 million from the New PAC, the Sirius accelerator activates four new research lines, strengthens studies on an atomic scale, and advances integration with the Orion laboratory, NB4 biological containment

Largest scientific infrastructure gains new fronts

Four lines expand the capacity of Sirius

Project Orion will have NB4 biological containment

Program targets radical innovation in health

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The largest scientific infrastructure ever built in Brazil cost R$ 2.8 billion and now gains four new lines to reveal materials, microchips, and even microorganisms at the atomic scale; meet Sirius.

With R$ 800 million from the New PAC, the Sirius accelerator activates four new research lines, strengthens studies on an atomic scale, and advances integration with the Orion laboratory, NB4 biological containment

Largest scientific infrastructure gains new fronts

Four lines expand the capacity of Sirius

Project Orion will have NB4 biological containment

Program targets radical innovation in health

While an average building in London or New York takes three years to be completed, in China a 26-story tower went up in five days with about 100 workers, and the global modular construction market already moves US$ 95 billion per year.

Australia installs giant concrete structures on the seabed 800 meters from the shore to create an ocean intake for desalination that will draw in saltwater and produce 30 million liters of drinking water per day.

A public school student single-handedly created a machine capable of treating water for up to 50 people using only solar energy. It was awarded third place at one of the most important science fairs in the world.

Goodbye traditional washing machine: Panasonic surprises housewives with the NA-G5 featuring four drums, a 13 kg washer and dryer, a 12 kg dryer, independent mini washers, a heat pump, and a 4-in-1 system awarded at the German Design Award.

While cities spend fortunes patching potholes and tons of plastic become waste, the Netherlands transforms over 218,000 recycled cups into a modular bike path that can conceal drainage, cables, and pipes.

While communities suffer from water scarcity and the advancing desert, women in Morocco use nets high up in the mountains to trap fog droplets, fill reservoirs, and transport drinking water through more than 10 km of piping.

Changan and Chery promise mass production of solid-state batteries with 1,500 kilometers of range in 2027 while Tesla still uses lithium and Toyota only promises to deliver theirs in 2028.

A simple cable splice can cost R$ 500,000 in the high-voltage underground project that promises to change the energy game in Brazil and challenge the limits of national electrical engineering.

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The lack of truck drivers has already left 20 trucks idle at a transport company in ABC Paulista and highlights the growing difficulty in hiring experienced drivers for hazardous cargo, while young people are migrating to apps, urban deliveries, and other forms of work away from the roads.

The hidden diamond crater in Siberia is almost 100 km in diameter, formed when an asteroid passed through the atmosphere at 20 km/s 36 million years ago, and is still being shaped by erosion in the Russian ice as one of the largest cosmic scars ever recorded by NASA on Earth.

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A simple cable splice can cost R$ 500,000 in the high-voltage underground project that promises to change the energy game in Brazil and challenge the limits of national electrical engineering.