Keen to bolster the economic and science bases in his state, South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds has a new strategy for brokering the conversion of the Homestake gold mine near the Black Hills town of Lead into an underground lab. Not content to wait, however, some proponents of a National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory are scoping for backup sites. But these latest twists are unlikely to rush NSF—the key to realizing NUSEL. An underground lab is “a stunning opportunity for science,” but the agency “has its procedures,” says Michael Turner, NSF assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences. “Big projects don’t happen overnight.”
A deep, multipurpose research facility, NUSEL would shield neutrino, dark-matter, and other sensitive experiments from cosmic rays. It would also enable studies involving fluid flow, rock deformation, and microbial life at extreme temperatures. Several blue-ribbon panels have endorsed the idea of an underground lab, and in...
