Studies funded by NSF are underway at the Homestake Mine, a former gold mine, located approximately 45 miles northwest of Rapid City, South Dakota, to better understand and define the scope, schedule and cost for establishing a world-class underground research facility in the mine. The proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) would use land, existing buildings and infrastructure, and underground mine workings donated by the Homestake Mining Company to the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA) in 2006. The SDSTA was created by the South Dakota legislature to accept the Homestake donation, to re-open the Homestake Mine, and convert the mine to a dedicated center for science, engineering and education. This award provides $29.019 million over 2 years to support ongoing studies with the goal of completing a Preliminary Design Report for the proposed DUSEL facility by the end of calendar year 2010. The DUSEL Preliminary Design is expected to allow appropriately informed consideration by NSF of DUSEL for Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction (MREFC) funding.
Highly sensitive experiments envisioned for DUSEL require the massive amounts of overburden available at the Homestake Mine to shield cosmic rays. The experimental programs envisioned for DUSEL are intended to answer a rich array of scientific and engineering questions, constituting a program of strong intellectual merit. Physics and astrophysical research thrusts will explore the nature of dark matter; advance the understanding of neutrinos; study matter-antimatter asymmetry evident today relative to the early universe; probe the fundamental stability of matter through study of proton decay; investigate how the universe evolved through studies of the solar neutrino flux; and pursue other topics of fundamental interest. Also of interest are studies of life underground that evolves in extreme conditions; studies of rock porosity, strength, stresses, internal heat flow and other characteristics; in situ studies of coupled thermal, hydrological, chemical, mechanical, and biological processes on a large dimensional scale, at unprecedented depth, and with little anthropological interferences; and the creation of opportunities for important new intellectual synergies across these various disciplines.
An education and outreach program is planned for DUSEL to enhance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research and education opportunities to under- represented persons, including American Indians, as well as to the local public and those who will be drawn to the area by the underground lab. Outreach efforts will be needed to engage historically underrepresented groups in areas of science and technology; to make science education available for the general public; to create DUSEL-related research opportunities for students and teachers; and seek to be partners with regional institutions. Outreach at national and international scales is envisioned using virtual environments to facilitate broader, intellectual and educational connections.
The NSF funded a cooperative agreement with the University of California, Berkeley to develop a preliminary design and associated documentation for a national underground research facility conforming to the NSF’s "Large Facility Manual" requirements (NSF Document 10-12 March 31, 2011). The research facility was designed to host a multidisciplinary suite of experiments spanning physics, geosciences, and engineering, and incorporate robust education and outreach functions. The UCB team forged a strong collaboration with South Dakota universities and government agencies including the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and Black Hills State University to form the DUSEL Project team. The South Dakota partnership oversaw the facility rehabilitation and restoration activities, the education and outreach activities, and leadership for the biology/geology/engineering science activities. The State of South Dakota contributed over $120M to the rehabilitation and early science activities. This contribution includes a $70M donation from South Dakota philanthropist T. Denny Sanford. Working with two dozen candidate experiment collaborations, the DUSEL team developed the design of an underground laboratory (Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory or DUSEL) established at the former Homestake mine in Lead, South Dakota integrating all the experimental infrastructure requirements developed by the DUSEL Project and the independent collaborations. Conceptual and preliminary designs were completed and reviewed by internal and agency review teams. The Preliminary Design was found to meet all requirements laid out in the NSF’s Large Facility Manual and was at least at the ~30% construction-ready stage. The facility engineering and design development led that of the experiments, due to requisite R&D being accomplished in parallel with the facility design. The facility design was reviewed and found to accommodate all known or anticipated experimental requirements. The South Dakota commitment to the project established a state-of-the-art research facility at the 4850 Level of the facility, named in honor of Homestake research Dr. Ray Davis: the Davis Campus of the Sanford Laboratory. This facility currently hosts a dark matter experiment, a neutrinoless double beta decay experiment, and a research effort to create ultra-pure materials required by underground experiments. In preparing the DUSEL design, the National Academy of Sciences performed an assessment of the science proposed to be conducted at DUSEL and found that three of the physics experiments--direct detection of dark matter, a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment, and a ton-scale neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment--"are of paramount and comparable scientific importance. Each of these experiments addresses at least one crucial question upon which the tenets of our understanding of the universe depend." The NAS also strongly supported a fourth physics experiment, a nuclear astrophysics study to measure low-energy nuclear physics cross-sections relevant to astrophysical processes. Furthermore, DUSEL would have offered unique opportunities to geosciences and subsurface engineering to explore in situ physical and mechanical properties of rock at depth and over large areas and times. The proposed experiments would examine the thermo-hydro-mechanical- chemical-biological aspects of the subsurface systems in a facility previously unavailable for these studies. The DUSEL Preliminary Design can be obtained from: Lesko, K.T., et al., "Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory - Preliminary Design Report", arXiv:1108.0959, (2012) and the National Academy of Sciences assessment of DUSEL’s proposed science program can be obtained from: An Assessment of the Science Proposed for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL. www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13204www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13204 Following the National Science Board’s decision in December 2010 not to pursue DUSEL to the construction stage or to further the design, the sponsorship of the site and leadership of the physics experiments were assumed by the US Department of Energy. There, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sanford Underground Research Facility is exploiting the State of South Dakota’s very significant investments in the facility to develop the US’s first deep underground research facility. The DUSEL Project team has overseen the transfer of information and design details to the DOE to facilitate this transition. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in partnership with the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority is managing and operating the research facility for the DOE High Energy Physics. The Facility current hosts two major physics experiments and ~20 smaller biology/geology/engineering efforts. These research efforts are primarily supported by DOE and NSF. The DOE’s Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) plans on deploying the far neutrino detector at the Homestake site. LBNE is currently preparing for its CD-1 review. The NSF and DOE are pursuing options for second generation dark matter experiments at Homestake; the NSF has initiated R&D for an underground nuclear astrophysics facility at Homestake.
