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What is a DUSEL?
A DUSEL is a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory. In July 2007, following a rigorous selection process, the National Science Foundation named the Homestake site (a former gold mine) in Lead, SD as its preferred location for such a facility. More than 80 experiments have been proposed. The NSF has made initial payment of a three-year $15 million award to allow the Homestake Collaboration of scientists to develop a specific technical design for the laboratory at the 7400 foot level. The NSF Science Board, Congress and the president must approve the DUSEL Project, estimated at $500 million, half of which will be used to develop scientific instrumentation for the laboratory.The Homestake site is capable of hosting a comprehensive suite of experiments in all major fields of science: low background experiments and very large detectors in particle and nuclear physics and multidisciplinary deep sub-surface studies in geosciences, geo-engineering and microbiology. These experiments require ultra-low backgrounds and consequently require great depth. The site is expandable over 30 years to accommodate an evolving scientific and outreach mission. The only underground science laboratory in the world that is deeper than 4,850 feet is the 6,800-foot-deep Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory (SNOLAB) in Ontario, Canada.
In November 2007 the National Science Foundation released "Deep Science: A Deep Underground Science and Engineering Initiative." Click here to read the report.
For additional background, see the National Science Foundation Large Facilities Manual released in May 2007. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0738/nsf0738.pdf
The Homestake Collaboration will hold a DUSEL workshop in Lead, SD in April. Click here for details.
Meanwhile, microbiology sampling as well as planning and preliminary installation work for geoscience experiments is underway at various levels of the Sanford Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at Homestake, which is an interim laboratory with space to be available for science at various levels, including at the 4850foot level. This level is where the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Dr. Ray Davis of the University of Pennsylvania built his neutrino detection experiment.
On June 26, 2006, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds announced that Sioux Falls, SD resident Mr. T. Denny Sanford offered to donate $70 million to improve the underground infrastructure of the Homestake Mine and to create a world class science and education center.
The gift will be used in four phases:
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$15 million to improve the hoists in the Yates and Ross Shafts; provide a modern personnel hoist in the Yates Shaft; and further upgrade the mine's electrical system. Mr. Sanford gave this first gift to the South Dakota Science and Technology in December 2007.
$20 million for the development of "clean room" space and an underground laboratory facility at the 4850 ft. level.
$15 million for the continued preparation of a deep underground laboratory at 7400 ft.
$20 million for the creation of the "Sanford Center for Science Education;" a world-class center for educating children both in South Dakota and around the world.