Why underground laboratories?
Underground laboratories shield sensitive experiments from cosmic radiation. Japan, Italy and Canada have the largest deep labs, where physicists look for answers to fundamental questions such as why matter exists, how stars work and how matter and energy are related.
Why Homestake?
Dr. Ray Davis shared the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics for his solar-neutrino experiment, which was 4,850 feet underground in the Homestake gold mine in Lead, S.D. When the Homestake mine closure was announced in September 2000, physicists proposed converting it into the world’s largest, deepest lab.
Homestake’s advantages?
- 8,000 feet deep.
- 370 miles of tunnels.
- Sanford Lab early science.
- Strong South Dakota support.
- National physics community support.
- Room for physics, biology and geoscience.
What are the Sanford Lab and the SDSTA?
The South Dakota Science and Technology Authority is reopening Homestake as the Sanford Underground Laboratory, with experiments as deep as 4,850 feet underground. The Sanford Lab also will demonstrate the feasibility of a bigger, deeper national lab at Homestake, funded by the National Science Foundation.
How is the Sanford Lab funded?
- $10 million HUD grant (2002).
- $39 million from the state Legislature (2004, 2005, 2010).
- $70 million donation from T. Denny Sanford (2006)
- Barrick Gold donated Homestake mine to South Dakota (2006).
What is DUSEL?
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and S.D. School of Mines & Technology lead a nationwide team of scientists and engineers designing the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, or DUSEL at Homestake. If approved by the National Science Foundation, DUSEL would over the Sanford Lab, which would become a national laboratory with campuses as deep as 7,400 feet underground.
How does DUSEL funding work?
- The NSF has awarded $47 million to the University of California-Berkeley to write a DUSEL preliminary design.
- Construction funding, if approved, could come as soon as fiscal 2014.
How are Sanford Lab and DUSEL related?
Homestake was sealed shut in 2003, and water filled themine to a high-water mark 4,530 feet underground. Now the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority ispumping the water out. The 4850 Level is dry, and Sanford Lab personnel are refurbishing it for early science. The Sanford Lab and DUSEL teams also are working together on the proposed national underground laboratory at Homestake.
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