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.

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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

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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

Engineers want to carve through Africa with a giant canal to bring water from the world’s second-largest river to a dying lake on the edge of the Sahara Desert that has already lost 90% of its water.

Brazil filled the Northeast with wind turbines but now faces the side effect of 705 giant blades reaching the end of their lifespan by 2032 just in Rio Grande do Norte, while the world projects 43 million tons of waste by 2050.

India approved the country’s first submerged road-rail tunnel, 15.8 kilometers dug under the bed of the Brahmaputra River.

Instead of burning or burying old tires, an American city is transforming about 2,000 of them into the street itself, paving its first sections with a quieter and more durable rubber asphalt.

In just one cast, fishermen are surprised to capture 14,096 mullets in Bombinhas and close a historic season with 58,000 fish; scene recorded in the Santa Catarina paradise marks the last day of the 2026 season.

10 giant tortoises are reintroduced and, in just 6 months, trigger changes that lead scientists to investigate a phenomenon absent for 180 years; the numbers recorded on the island impress researchers from around the world.

Greek island offers free housing for volunteers, but there’s a condition: you need to take care of rescued cats.

Only 28% of the ocean floor has been accurately mapped, less than what is already known about the surface of Mars and the Moon, and scientists consider the topic strategic for Brazil, with a global goal to map everything by 2030.

Japan wants to bury a 500 km “cargo conveyor” between Tokyo and Osaka to replace up to 25,000 trucks per day, move goods through tunnels and automated driverless corridors, and avoid a logistical collapse in an increasingly aging country.

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