Thread: SD--Director confident nation will build underground lab

Director confident nation will build underground lab

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The official in charge of turning the former Homestake gold mine into an underground science laboratory said Friday he is confident the federal government will eventually decide to establish a national lab at the site.

"The only question is not if, but when," Sanford Laboratory director Jose Alonso said in response to a question from a member of the South Dakota Board of Regents.

Alonso, in charge of developing an interim lab at the former mine in the northern Black Hills, met with the regents to outline progress being made on the project.

The National Science Foundation last year picked Homestake as the preferred site for a laboratory that would extend 7,400 feet underground, but in the interim the state is building the Sanford Laboratory at the 4,850-foot level.

Scientists want to conduct experiments underground because the thousands of feet of rock filter out much of the cosmic radiation that interferes with efforts to detect and study dark matter, neutrinos and other fundamental particles.

After a team of scientists puts together a detailed design for a national lab, the NSF will once again review the proposal. Congress and the president eventually will be asked to fund the project.

Alonso said he believes the national lab will be built because the existing top-notch underground labs are all located in other nations. U.S. funding agencies and scientists would prefer to take part in projects in an underground lab located in this nation, he said.

"Will the United States have one? It's got to," Alonso told the Board of Regents.

In the meantime, the state is using $70 million donated by Sioux Falls businessman T. Denny Sanford, along with $35 million approved by the South Dakota Legislature, to reopen the mine, pump out water and start an interim lab 4,850 feet below ground.

Alonso said crews are now pumping water in one of the shafts and expect to start the first physics experiment at the 4,850-foot level this fall.

A couple hundred scientists will visit Lead next month for a special workshop to discuss experiments they want to conduct in the underground lab, and Alonso said the April 20-26 meeting is an opportunity for scientists at South Dakota's public universities to get involved in those experiments.

Alonso told university administrators they should encourage scientists at their schools to attend the workshop. The South Dakota scientists should study the proposed experiments and be prepared to explain how they can provide in-state expertise and facilities to help with the projects sponsored by scientists from around the world, he said.

The scientists in charge of the experiments need local collaborators who can monitor the experiments and make adjustments because they are close to the underground lab, Alonso said.

"My view is it is a unique opportunity for South Dakota scientists for mixing and joining in with these world collaborations," Alonso said.

South Dakota hopes the underground lab will boost science and math education, research and economic development within the state. The Legislature recently approved the regents' plan to issue nearly $75 million in bonds to upgrade science and laboratory facilities in all the state's six public universities.

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We already have underground places like Camp Weather in Virginia.