LBNF

From Sanford Underground Research Facility, Nov. 24, 2020: Another series of upgrades to the Ross Shaft is underway at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Crews are working to outfit the shaft with new cage and skip conveyances and have replaced thousands of feet of hoist cables. The work prepares the Ross Shaft for its role as the main travel way for upcoming excavation and construction of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility to support the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the world’s flagship neutrino experiment, which is hosted by Fermilab.

From Black Hills Pioneer, Nov. 17, 2020: Thyssen Mining Company, one of North America’s largest mining companies, has signed a three-year contract to excavate space for the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility at Sanford Lab in South Dakota. The company plans to bring about 110 jobs for miners, operators, mechanics, electricians, engineers, and managers. Thyssen Mining is currently preparing office space in Lead, as well as getting personnel lined up, contracting with local vendors, and preparing equipment for the project.

This month, Thyssen Mining Inc. was awarded the contract to excavate the gigantic caverns for Fermilab’s Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility. Excavation crews will drill, blast and remove approximately 800,000 tons of rock to create the underground space for LBNF. When complete, the facility will house the enormous particle detector for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab.

All summer long, progress on preparing the Fermilab site for the construction of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility has been proceeding at a healthy clip. Now, as summer winds down, that site prep is nearing completion.

From Science, Oct. 2, 2020: As U.S. particle physicists start to drum up new ideas for the next decade in a yearlong Snowmass process they have no single big project to push for (or against). Physicists have just started to build the current plan’s centerpiece: The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility at Fermilab will shoot particles through 1,300 kilometers of rock to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in South Dakota. Fermilab Deputy Director of Research Joe Lykken and Fermilab scientist Vladimir Shiltsev comment on other possible pursuits in high-energy physics.

From Rapid City Journal, Aug. 6, 2020: Crews have begun installing a rock conveyor over U.S. Highway 85 in Lead, South Dakota, for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility. The conveyor will bring 800,000 tons of rock from the 4850 level of Sanford Underground Research Facility and deposit them into an open pit mining area that was excavated by the Homestake Gold Mine in the 1980s, making way for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab.

From Sanford Underground Research Facility, Aug. 4, 2020: The most publicly visible milestone of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility’s pre-excavation work, a conveyor system, now extends over U.S. Highway 85 in Lead, South Dakota. Installation of the conveyor is one of a series of infrastructure strengthening projects undertaken to prepare the Sanford Underground Research Facility for its role as LBNF’s far site. Such projects lay the groundwork for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the most ambitious particle physics experiment on U.S. soil, hosted by Fermilab.

From Black Hills Pioneer, July 22, 2020: Since late 2019, work has been underway on the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility conveyor system at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota. The system will carry more than 800,000 tons of rock excavated from the site of the international, Fermilab-hosted Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment 4,850-feet below the surface. A major milestone for the project was met on July 20 as the 120-foot section of the truss, which will house the conveyor, was erected above the highway.

Partners celebrate the site dedication of the Integrated Engineering Research Center and the groundbreaking for the PIP-II cryoplant building.

From Science, July 7, 2020: Spending panels in the U.S. House of Representatives have begun voting on bills to fund the government, and a few of them made use of an emergency mechanism to beef up research budgets. The national laboratories funded by the Department of Energy’s Office of Science is a big winner, receiving a one-time boost of $6.25 billion next year under a plan approved by a House spending panel, including funding for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility hosted by Fermilab.