A key feature of the SPring-8 storage ring is the presence of four 30 m lon
g straight sections for the installation of very long insertion devices. Tw
o characteristics of very long undulators are presented here: first, the pr
oblems brought by the necessity to phase the individual segments, which in
turn, imposed the use of the in-vacuum technology; next, the near-field eff
ects which appear on-axis as these undulators length is comparable to the d
istance between the observation point and the source. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sci
ence B.V. All rights reserved.