ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT:

The international physics community is developing plans for a major particle physics experiment, The Long Baseline Experiment. The experiment will probe the fundamental behaviours and properties of sub-nucleic particles, neutrinos. The Long Baseline experiment will be long-term and data will be collected over a multi-year period. The particle detector associated with this experiment will need to be built at depth underground within a very large cavern. Experimental options currently under consideration call for the excavation of rock spans in excess of 50 m, mined at depths of up to 1500m with excavation of bank rock volumes in excess of a half a million cubic metres. Such dimensions are at or beyond the limit of conventional rock engineering practice and construction will be a major undertaking. In the US, the Long Baseline cavern would be one of a number of large underground sites housed within the boundaries of the US Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL). The final DUSEL site is yet to be determined. In July 2005, the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the principal funding agency spearheading this new initiative, short-listed two candidate sites for funded conceptual design work. The two sites are the Henderson Mine, Empire, Colorado and the Homestake Mine, Lead, South Dakota. Both sites take advantage of existing mine excavations (shafts, winzes and decline tunnels) and installed infrastructure to support access to depth and provide the requisite operational services. The NSF will select the DUSEL site in 2007, based on the findings and recommendations of a design review panel. The designs for the Henderson and Homestake Mines and other prospective sites will be submitted early 2007. It is anticipated that construction at the selected site will start by the end of the decade.

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