Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory
Encyclopedia
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
. DUSEL will be a series of large laboratories, caverns, and cleanroom
Cleanroom
A cleanroom is an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific research, that has a low level of environmental pollutants such as dust, airborne microbes, aerosol particles and chemical vapors. More accurately, a cleanroom has a controlled level of contamination that is specified by...
s serving the field of underground science. The main impetus for DUSEL is the study of extremely rare nuclear physics processes, like neutrino
Neutrino
A neutrino is an electrically neutral, weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle with a half-integer spin, chirality and a disputed but small non-zero mass. It is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected...
scattering, dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
interactions, and neutrinoless double beta decay, which can only be studied in the absence of cosmic rays. (Cosmic ray muons on the Earth's surface cause backgrounds in these types of detectors, but the particles cannot penetrate great depths in rock.) Easy access to these great depths will open new frontiers in geomicrobiology
Geomicrobiology
Geomicrobiology is the result of the combination of geology and microbiology. The field of geomicrobiology concerns the role of microbe and microbial processes in geological and geochemical processes and vice-versa...
, geosciences, and mining engineering
Mining engineering
Mining engineering is an engineering discipline that involves the practice, the theory, the science, the technology, and application of extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment. Mining engineering also includes processing minerals for additional value.Mineral...
, making DUSEL a multidisciplinary facility.
Various proposals for an American underground science facility have existed for at least a decade. Eight teams submitted proposals in 2005, including both existing mines (which need only be retrofitted and enlarged) and "green sites" from which a new facility could be excavated. Of these eight, via various downselections, the NSF gave R&D grants to two proposals, Homestake Mine (South Dakota)
Homestake Mine (South Dakota)
The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002 it was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America, producing more than 40 million ounces of gold. The Homestake Mine is famous in scientific circles for being the site at which the...
and the Henderson molybdenum mine
Henderson molybdenum mine
The Henderson molybdenum mine is a large underground molybdenum mine west of the town of Empire in Clear Creek County, Colorado, USA. The Henderson mine, which has produced molybdenum since 1976, is owned by Freeport-McMoRan....
in Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
. In July 2007 the NSF gave its approval to Homestake.
If completed, Homestake will be the deepest underground science facility in the world, 8000 feet (2,438.4 m) below ground (7200 meters of water equivalent, for cosmic-ray shielding purposes), deeper than the current record holder, SNOLAB
Snolab
SNOLAB is a Canadian underground physics laboratory at a depth of 2 km in Sudbury, Ontario in Vale's Creighton nickel mine. The original Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment has ended, but the facilities have been expanded into a permanent underground laboratory.SNOLAB is the world's...
in Sudbury, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
at 6800 feet (2,072.6 m) below (6000 mwe). The next-deepest US facilities are the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, is the world's third deep geological repository licensed to permanently dispose of transuranic radioactive waste for 10,000 years that is left from the research and production of nuclear weapons...
at 2300 mwe and Soudan mine at 2200 mwe.
Gaining access to that depth will take some time, since the mine is flooded to the 4992 feet (1,521.6 m) depth and will need to be pumped dry and rusted equipment repaired. Plans are to construct an interim laboratory, at the 4850 feet (1,478.3 m) level. This "Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake", currently funded by T. Denny Sanford
T. Denny Sanford
Thomas Denny Sanford is a South Dakota businessman and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of United National Corp.-Business ventures:...
($70 million) and the state of South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
($35 million) will support a National Science Foundation grant application for the full DUSEL (est. $550 million) in 2011.
In 2008, the Rapid City Public Library
Rapid City Public Library
The Rapid City Public Library is the system of public libraries in Rapid City, South Dakota. It has two locations, the downtown branch at 610 Quincy Street, and the North location at 10 Van Buren St...
created a DUSEL wiki that collects news articles, photos, and information pertaining to the experiments that will take place in Homestake Mine. It also includes a list of other underground science facilities and a forum for community discussion.
Future of DUSEL in doubt due to funding uncertainty
In late 2010, the oversight board of the National Science Foundation dropped out of the project leaving the future of DUSEL in doubt. The National Science Board rejected requests from DUSEL’s designers for more money after spending the $19 million allocated. Additionally, the board did not like its proposed role in DUSEL that would have made the foundation part of a stewardship program to run it.See also
- Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake home page.
- Laboratori Nazionali del Gran SassoLaboratori Nazionali del Gran SassoLaboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso is a particle physics laboratory of the INFN, situated near the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy, between the towns of L'Aquila and Teramo, about 120 km from Rome. In addition to a surface portion of the laboratory, there are extensive underground facilities...
- Kamioka ObservatoryKamioka ObservatoryThe is a neutrino physics laboratory located underground in the Mozumi Mine of the Kamioka Mining and Smelting Co. near the Kamioka section of the city of Hida in Gifu Prefecture, Japan. A set of groundbreaking neutrino experiments have taken place at the observatory over the past two decades...
- DUSEL wiki hosted by Rapid City Public Library