Operation and performance of the SPring-8 storage ring

Two-year operation experiences of the SPring-8 storage ring are presented. The commissioning of the storage ring was successfully completed, with the achievement of performance far beyond the target specifications. The beam lifetime is about 60 hours at 100 mA in the multi bunch mode. The 7 nm-rad of the emittance measured for the horizontal plane is close to the theoretical value. From the beginning of the operation, vertical emittance is extremely small, about 10 pm-rad and the coupling is about 0.2%. Furthermore, the procedures for decreasing the coupling have been tested. Purity in the few 10/sup -6/ range is routinely achieved in the single and several bunch operation of user service mode. We achieved a good orbit stability at source points, about 5 and 1 micron in an r.m.s. value respectively for horizontal and vertical planes. The beam performance of the SPring-8 storage ring is presented.