Crews completed the first successful lift and lowering of a steel beam a mile underground for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.
Sanford Underground Research Facility
From the Black Hills Pioneer, Aug. 21, 2021: The former Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, SD was dedicated as the M. Michael Rounds Operations Center at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. The dedication event included remarks from many dignitaries including Sanford Lab Executive Director Mike Headley, who talked about the long journey it has been to support the new facility and that Sanford Lab has made great strides toward building the LBNF that will house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at 4,850 level, led by Fermilab.
When studying mysterious subatomic particles, researchers at SURF in South Dakota use a different kind of particle detector, particle counters, to prevent run-of-the-mill dust particles from creating background noise and obscuring results.
How do you build a ship in a bottle? Everything necessary to construct the enormous Fermilab-hosted international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment must fit down a narrow, mile-deep shaft cut through solid rock. Contractors have started the months-long process of disassembling excavation equipment and lowering it underground.
Fermilab contractors have successfully commissioned a system that will move 800,000 tons of rock to create space for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment’s detectors in South Dakota. Excavation crews will transport the rock from a mile underground to the surface using refurbished mining infrastructure and the newly constructed conveyor system.
Sanford Underground Research Facility is making an effort to build bridges with Native American communities and operate with respect for the sacred land it is built on.
Read the travelogue of a xenon atom as it journeys from the air we breathe to a dark-matter detector a mile underground.
The Ross Hoists, built in the 1930s, receive major upgrades in preparation for LBNF/DUNE construction and operation.
From Construction and Engineering, March 16, 2021: A construction and engineering short view on the development of DUNE and the impressive engineering and excavation process involving hundreds of thousands of tons of rock almost a mile below the surface.
DUNE’s near detector, located at Fermilab, will take vital measurements of neutrino beam energy and composition before it reaches the experiment’s far detector in South Dakota. Its unmatched precision measurements will offer its own opportunities for the discovery of new physics.