Progress report on the construction of SOLEIL

The construction phase of SOLEIL, the French third generation Synchrotron radiation Source has begun in January 2002 with the aim of starting Users operation in spring 2006. The machine now consists in a 354 m circumference ring, with 16 DB cells and 24 straight sections. The optics, with distributed dispersion, features a low 3.7 nmrad emittance at the 2.75 GeV operating energy, so as to provide high brilliance, from the VUV up to the hard X ray domain. In order to provide a long lifetime (18 hours), and beam position stabilities in the micron range, significant attention was paid at each design stage (optics, magnets, beam position monitors, vacuum and RF systems,..), including on the design of the building, the construction of which will start in summer 2003. All the magnets have been designed and are in the last stage to be ordered. The qualification of the 352 MHz super-conducting RF cavity prototype has been done on the ESRF ring. Insertion devices are being designed with the goal of serving a very large scientific community with high performances in an energy range as large as 5 eV to 18 keV with undulators. The contract was placed for the 100 MeV Linac for a delivery summer 2004.