The peculiarity in the design of SPAN is in the NSE precession "eld, which is created by three pairs of coils with diameters 1, 3 and 4.8 m, respectively, and allows for simultaneous NSE measurements over a wide angular range. The experimental results con"rmed the high axial symmetry of the precession "eld and show that the new magnetic "eld con"guration of SPAN is particularly appropriate for multidetector NSE over a wide angular range. 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.