cryogenics

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is building the largest underground cryogenic system ever attempted to support its massive liquid-argon detectors.

A signing ceremony held at Fermilab opened the next stage of cooperation for design, manufacturing and testing of cryogenic subsystems for DUNE’s neutrino detector modules in Lead, South Dakota.

Deep inside a converted gold mine in South Dakota, researchers are tackling a colossal engineering challenge — building massive, super-cooled containers to hold liquid argon for a flagship physics experiment hosted by Fermilab for the international DUNE collaboration.

Ultra-cold labs and cryogenic systems are essential tools for quantum innovation, training, and discovery. The region’s expanding capacity will boost startups and create new jobs.

The labs are developing a practical approach to reduce the size and cost of superconducting linear accelerators, which offer great potential for addressing used nuclear fuel, while also improving their reliability.

The former U.S. Steel plant is planned to be developed into a quantum research park named South Works. Fermilab’s Ben Hansen, director of the cryogenic technology division, talks about developing the cryogenic resources.

A massive 95-metric ton coldbox that completed a cross-ocean journey from France to Batavia, Illinois was moved across the Fermilab campus this week.

The coldbox, a vital piece of Fermilab’s new linear accelerator, is on a two-month voyage from France to its new home in Batavia, Illinois. It will be at the heart of the cryogenic system for the lab’s upgraded accelerator complex.

Plans are moving ahead for the liquid nitrogen refrigeration system which will use liquid nitrogen to cool the 17,500 tons of liquid argon that will fill the neutrino detectors at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility in the Sanford Lab. The system is expected to be built by 2026, and operational underground by the end of 2026 to support the installation of some detector elements, and the operations of the full facility starting in early 2028.

The cryogenic plant, to be installed a mile underground, will provide the cooling for two large liquid-argon neutrino detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.