The Victorian Government has pulled funding of the state’s $200 million synchrotron, casting doubt over the future of the project.

 

The synchrotron, built in Melbourne by the previous ALP state government, cost $200 million to build. However, it’s the operational cost that the new Liberal state government cites for its decision.

 

The Victorian state budget handed down last week didn’t provide any new funds for operating the facility, with state innovation minister Louise Asher, a long-time critic of the facility, telling The Sunday Age in Melbourne that it will “have to go through the budget expenditure and review committee process.”

 

The synchrotron charges for “beam time”, but it has not generated sufficient income to be viable in its own right.

 

Last year, the facility was in the spotlight when John Brumby sacked the project’s director, and it was known then that the facility had failed to secure funding beyond 2012.