SURF Archives

Sanford Lab dedicates M. Michael Rounds Operations Center

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.

DUNE prototype detector ArgonCube crosses the globe

A large box-like structure sits on a round platform. Behind it, a banner that says "DUNE." To the right, a man with short hair wears glasses, a face mask, blue surgical gloves, a blue shirt and brown pants.

The first module of the prototype pixel-based neutrino catcher developed for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment is on its way to Fermilab from the University of Bern.

The other particle detector

An illustration. I person stands inside a giant, hollow gold cube and sends a signal using a device to another device on the left side of the screen that is close up and held in a hand. The close-up device says "counting" and has some numbers. In the bottom right-hand corner, it says LBNF/DUNE.

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.

Construction crews start lowering equipment a mile underground for excavation for DUNE

An orange and silver drill rig (a tractor-like apparatus with two parallel arms that reach above the cab and then make a steep diagonal to the ground) and several red and silver drill rigs sit in the foreground of a silty construction site. Other equipment is in the midground and hills filled with evergreens and blue sky above in the background.

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.

Where science meets the sacred

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.