General University News
Stony Brook Researchers Part Of National Team Selected To Develop Underground Science And Engineering Laboratory

STONY BROOK, N.Y., July 28, 2005 – A group of Stony Brook University physicists are part of a national consortium that was selected today by the National Science Foundation to develop a site and conceptual design for an underground research facility in Colorado where revolutionary discoveries and advances in science and engineering would be possible.

The Henderson Underground Science and Engineering Project (HUSEF) collaboration – which also includes researchers from the University of Colorado, Boulder; Colorado School of Mines; Colorado State University; University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Pennsylvania State University; University of Tennessee; University of Utah; Climax Molybdenum Company Henderson Mine operation; and The Arapaho Project – now receives $500,000 to develop the conceptual design to convert the Henderson Mine into a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL).

The proposed DUSEL would be a multi-disciplinary underground research center housing a variety of advanced experiments in physics, geosciences, and bioscience. These experiments would explore the mysterious nature of neutrinos, a fundamental particle of the universe about which comparatively little is known, and the stability of protons that are critical to establishing a unified theory of particle physics; shed light on processes in supernovae and black hole formations; probe the secrets of life that exist deep in the earth and, thereby, provide crucial clues to the search for extraterrestrial life; examine the properties of the deep rock itself; and establish methods of constructing deep, large and safe underground caverns for a variety of future uses.

“If DUSEL is built, scientists will unearth the secrets of the universe that are underground,” said Chang Kee Jung, Professor of Physics at Stony Brook University. “With DUSEL, because neutrinos penetrate the earth, detectors underground will be able to see these neutrinos, and we can compose images of the stars that we can see underground.”

The Henderson mine is one of the largest operating underground mines in the world. Established in the 1970s and modernized in 1999, the mine has an extensive infrastructure, including high capacity rock removal, electric power, water, water treatment and communications systems needed for DUSEL construction and operation.

HUSEP is now competing against a team based in South Dakota to actually develop the nation’s first multi-disciplined, comprehensive underground laboratory of this kind. The NSF is expected to pick the winner next year. During the past few decades, large-scale underground physics laboratories in Canada, Europe, and Japan have made major discoveries in neutrino physics.

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