대규모 지하 입자실험 중단 위기
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Science Now (6.4, 6.10) 종합
대규모 지하 입자 실험 중단 위기.
세계적인 지하 입자 실험실인 이탈리아의 Gran Sasso 와 미국의 Homstake 광산에서의 실험이 중단 위기를 맞고 있다.
Gran Sasso 의 경우 작년 8월 이곳에서 진행중은 BOREXINO 실험 그룹이 유독성 유기물을 흘려 버리는 사고가 발생하였다. 이 실험 그룹은 pseudocumene 이라는 액체 유기물을 사용한 태양 중성미자 검출기를 제작 중에 있는데, 이 사고 이후 지하수 및 강의 오염 여부에 대한 조사로 인하여 최근까지 실험실이 폐쇄되었다. 지방 법원은 지난 5월 29일 제출된 오염 조사 보고서에 의하여 안전상의 이유로 실험실을 폐쇄하였다. BOREXINO 실험 그룹은 법원에 실험실 폐쇄에 대하여 항고할 것을 계획중이다. Gran Sasso 실험실은 지하 약 1km에 위치하고 있으며, 현재 20여개 실험그룹이 실험 중이다.실험 그룹 중에는 우주에 존재하는 암흑물질을 처음으로 검출해낸 DAMA 실험그룹등이 있어 Gran Sasso 실험실의 실험 여건이 우수함을 보인바 있다.
미국의 Homestake 광산에 건설중인 지하 실험실은 세계에서 가장 깊은 곳에 위치한 것으로 현재 실험실을 만들기 위한 지하수 배수 작업이 진행 중이었다. 그러나 이 광산을 소유한 Barrick Gold Corp. 이 안전과 재정상의 이유(배수에는 한달에 수십만 달러가 소요된다)를 들어 배수 작업을 중단하였다. 이 회사는 연구 계획의 진전이 있을 때 배수작업을 재개할 것이라고 밝히고 있으나 배수작업 중단으로 인해 손상된 시설을 복구하는 데에도 수천만 달러가 소요될 것으로 예상되고 있다. 또한 이로 인하여 이곳에서 계획중인 실험들에 대한 미국 과학재단(NSF)들에 대한 재정 지원도 위기를 맞게 될 것으로 보인다.
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Science Now (6.10)
Italian Neutrino Lab Paralyzed
Work at the world's largest underground facility for the study of subatomic particles from space, Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory, has nearly ground to a halt. The reason is a court-ordered report that said the lab's drainage system could contaminate local water supplies. But physicists there say that fears are exaggerated and that the shutdown could set their research back by months or more. "This is a disaster for us," says Gianpaolo Bellini of the University of Milan, a spokesperson a solar-neutrino detector under construction at the lab called Borexino.
Last August, two researchers working on the Borexino experiment spilled pseudocumene (1,2,4-trimethylbenzene), a liquid chemical that scintillates when a neutrino strikes. The Borexino detector uses 300 tons of the fluid to spot neutrinos coming from reactions of beryllium-7 in the sun. The scientists raced to contain the spill and reported it immediately to the lab and local authorities, says Frank Calaprice, the head of a collaborating team at Princeton University. The volatile chemical quickly evaporated, but some of it drained into a nearby creek, where picnickers smelled it; a dead fish was also found at the scene, Calaprice says.
Environmentalists seized on the incident and took the lab to court. A tribunal in Teramo ordered an independent engineer to prepare a report on environmental safety conditions at the lab. Meanwhile, Italy's high-energy physics research institute, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), ordered the lab to halt any work involving pseudocumene in Hall C, the area where the spill took place. The 10,000-page report was released on 29 May. It acknowledged that no traces of trimethylbenzene had been found in local drinking water but concluded that a chemical spill might contaminate the local drinking water and river. In response, the Teramo tribunal immediately sealed off Hall C indefinitely, stopping all activities except safety checks, and INFN issued a general ban on the handling of fluids throughout the lab.
Some experiments--such as Icarus, a detector for muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere--do not require the handling of liquids and are still running, says Gran Sasso laboratory director Alessandro Bettini. But others, such as Borexino, are in limbo. "Borexino is the best hope, in the near future, of seeing beryllium-7 neutrinos," says Wick Haxton, a physicist at the University of Washington, Seattle. "This is a very bad time for them."
Bettini says he hopes to persuade the local judiciary to reopen Hall C. INFN is prepared to appeal to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome, he says.
--ALEXANDER HELLEMANS and CHARLES SEIFE
High and dry? Gran Sasso National Laboratory put experiments on hold after a chemical spill raised fears that the lab might be leak prone.
CREDIT: PHYSICS PHOTO UNIT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD/GRAN SASSO NATIONAL LABORATORY
Science Now (6.4)
Homestake Hopes Dampened
Physicists hoping to convert a gold mine into the world's deepest underground laboratory may soon see their dream sink without a trace. Barrick Gold Corp. of Toronto yesterday announced that it will soon turn off pumps that keep water out of its Homestake mine near Lead, South Dakota. Backers predict that the flooding will doom efforts to persuade the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund the $300 million project.
"I have a very hard time envisioning how we could sell [a proposal involving] a wet mine to NSF," says physicist Wick Haxton of the University of Washington, Seattle, the proposal's lead investigator.
Ironically, Barrick's announcement that it would turn off the pumps on 10 June came just days after an NSF advisory panel concluded that Homestake was "by far the most favorable" of three candidate sites for a buried U.S. lab (Science, 28 March, p. 1965). The panel also urged the company to keep the mine dry. Executives at Barrick, which ceased mining the 2400-meter-deep complex in 2000, said the decision was based on safety and financial concerns. (Pumping costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.) Barrick and South Dakota officials also said the mine could be drained again if the lab proposal, which has been stalled by legal concerns over liability for possible pollution at the mine, ever moves ahead.
Haxton, however, estimates it could cost $40 million to dry the mine and possibly more to fix damaged support beams, elevators, and wiring. "I can't imagine NSF spending that kind of money just to get back to where we are now," he says. NSF officials were not available for comment, but they had earlier planned to call a meeting to discuss the project's next steps. Haxton vows to work for a state-of-the-art underground laboratory "somewhere in the United States" even if Homestake dies.
Dead end? Efforts to turn a South Dakota mine into an underground lab may be doomed.
CREDIT: CHARLES NELSON/CNA CONSULTING ENGINEERS
대규모 지하 입자 실험 중단 위기.
세계적인 지하 입자 실험실인 이탈리아의 Gran Sasso 와 미국의 Homstake 광산에서의 실험이 중단 위기를 맞고 있다.
Gran Sasso 의 경우 작년 8월 이곳에서 진행중은 BOREXINO 실험 그룹이 유독성 유기물을 흘려 버리는 사고가 발생하였다. 이 실험 그룹은 pseudocumene 이라는 액체 유기물을 사용한 태양 중성미자 검출기를 제작 중에 있는데, 이 사고 이후 지하수 및 강의 오염 여부에 대한 조사로 인하여 최근까지 실험실이 폐쇄되었다. 지방 법원은 지난 5월 29일 제출된 오염 조사 보고서에 의하여 안전상의 이유로 실험실을 폐쇄하였다. BOREXINO 실험 그룹은 법원에 실험실 폐쇄에 대하여 항고할 것을 계획중이다. Gran Sasso 실험실은 지하 약 1km에 위치하고 있으며, 현재 20여개 실험그룹이 실험 중이다.실험 그룹 중에는 우주에 존재하는 암흑물질을 처음으로 검출해낸 DAMA 실험그룹등이 있어 Gran Sasso 실험실의 실험 여건이 우수함을 보인바 있다.
미국의 Homestake 광산에 건설중인 지하 실험실은 세계에서 가장 깊은 곳에 위치한 것으로 현재 실험실을 만들기 위한 지하수 배수 작업이 진행 중이었다. 그러나 이 광산을 소유한 Barrick Gold Corp. 이 안전과 재정상의 이유(배수에는 한달에 수십만 달러가 소요된다)를 들어 배수 작업을 중단하였다. 이 회사는 연구 계획의 진전이 있을 때 배수작업을 재개할 것이라고 밝히고 있으나 배수작업 중단으로 인해 손상된 시설을 복구하는 데에도 수천만 달러가 소요될 것으로 예상되고 있다. 또한 이로 인하여 이곳에서 계획중인 실험들에 대한 미국 과학재단(NSF)들에 대한 재정 지원도 위기를 맞게 될 것으로 보인다.
------------------------------------------
Science Now (6.10)
Italian Neutrino Lab Paralyzed
Work at the world's largest underground facility for the study of subatomic particles from space, Italy's Gran Sasso National Laboratory, has nearly ground to a halt. The reason is a court-ordered report that said the lab's drainage system could contaminate local water supplies. But physicists there say that fears are exaggerated and that the shutdown could set their research back by months or more. "This is a disaster for us," says Gianpaolo Bellini of the University of Milan, a spokesperson a solar-neutrino detector under construction at the lab called Borexino.
Last August, two researchers working on the Borexino experiment spilled pseudocumene (1,2,4-trimethylbenzene), a liquid chemical that scintillates when a neutrino strikes. The Borexino detector uses 300 tons of the fluid to spot neutrinos coming from reactions of beryllium-7 in the sun. The scientists raced to contain the spill and reported it immediately to the lab and local authorities, says Frank Calaprice, the head of a collaborating team at Princeton University. The volatile chemical quickly evaporated, but some of it drained into a nearby creek, where picnickers smelled it; a dead fish was also found at the scene, Calaprice says.
Environmentalists seized on the incident and took the lab to court. A tribunal in Teramo ordered an independent engineer to prepare a report on environmental safety conditions at the lab. Meanwhile, Italy's high-energy physics research institute, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN), ordered the lab to halt any work involving pseudocumene in Hall C, the area where the spill took place. The 10,000-page report was released on 29 May. It acknowledged that no traces of trimethylbenzene had been found in local drinking water but concluded that a chemical spill might contaminate the local drinking water and river. In response, the Teramo tribunal immediately sealed off Hall C indefinitely, stopping all activities except safety checks, and INFN issued a general ban on the handling of fluids throughout the lab.
Some experiments--such as Icarus, a detector for muons produced by cosmic ray interactions in the atmosphere--do not require the handling of liquids and are still running, says Gran Sasso laboratory director Alessandro Bettini. But others, such as Borexino, are in limbo. "Borexino is the best hope, in the near future, of seeing beryllium-7 neutrinos," says Wick Haxton, a physicist at the University of Washington, Seattle. "This is a very bad time for them."
Bettini says he hopes to persuade the local judiciary to reopen Hall C. INFN is prepared to appeal to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation in Rome, he says.
--ALEXANDER HELLEMANS and CHARLES SEIFE
High and dry? Gran Sasso National Laboratory put experiments on hold after a chemical spill raised fears that the lab might be leak prone.
CREDIT: PHYSICS PHOTO UNIT, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD/GRAN SASSO NATIONAL LABORATORY
Science Now (6.4)
Homestake Hopes Dampened
Physicists hoping to convert a gold mine into the world's deepest underground laboratory may soon see their dream sink without a trace. Barrick Gold Corp. of Toronto yesterday announced that it will soon turn off pumps that keep water out of its Homestake mine near Lead, South Dakota. Backers predict that the flooding will doom efforts to persuade the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund the $300 million project.
"I have a very hard time envisioning how we could sell [a proposal involving] a wet mine to NSF," says physicist Wick Haxton of the University of Washington, Seattle, the proposal's lead investigator.
Ironically, Barrick's announcement that it would turn off the pumps on 10 June came just days after an NSF advisory panel concluded that Homestake was "by far the most favorable" of three candidate sites for a buried U.S. lab (Science, 28 March, p. 1965). The panel also urged the company to keep the mine dry. Executives at Barrick, which ceased mining the 2400-meter-deep complex in 2000, said the decision was based on safety and financial concerns. (Pumping costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.) Barrick and South Dakota officials also said the mine could be drained again if the lab proposal, which has been stalled by legal concerns over liability for possible pollution at the mine, ever moves ahead.
Haxton, however, estimates it could cost $40 million to dry the mine and possibly more to fix damaged support beams, elevators, and wiring. "I can't imagine NSF spending that kind of money just to get back to where we are now," he says. NSF officials were not available for comment, but they had earlier planned to call a meeting to discuss the project's next steps. Haxton vows to work for a state-of-the-art underground laboratory "somewhere in the United States" even if Homestake dies.
Dead end? Efforts to turn a South Dakota mine into an underground lab may be doomed.
CREDIT: CHARLES NELSON/CNA CONSULTING ENGINEERS
