Nature:
The National Science Board has refused to continue to fund the
design of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering
Laboratory (DUSEL), which is expected to be built in the former
Homestake gold mine near Lead, South Dakota, at an eventual
cost of $800 million$900 million, writes
Eugenie Samuel Reich for
Nature. Because of the mine’s depth, it is the
perfect location for a range of sensitive experiments to search
for hard-to-detect particles such as neutrinos and dark matter.
Building the lab would allow the US to compete effectively with
other countries that have underground facilities, such as the
Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory near Hida, Japan; Gran
Sasso National Laboratory near L'Aquila, Italy; and the Sudbury
Neutrino Observatory in Canada. "Here in the United States we
are conspicuous in not having a deep underground science lab,
in contrast to other countries with large science programs,"
says Brown University's Rick Gaitskell, a particle
astrophysicist who hopes to use DUSEL.The board’s
decision reflected differences of opinion concerning the NSF's
and the Department of Energy's roles in DUSEL; board members
felt that DOE should be contributing more.
