South Dakota Underground Neutrino Facility Wins 2026 Project of the Year Award
The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) project in South Dakota has been awarded the 2026 Project of the Year by the Underground Construction Association. Located 1,520 meters beneath the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, a former gold mine, workers successfully excavated over 800,000 tons of rock to create two massive caverns. Each cavern measures 20 meters wide, 28 meters high, and 150 meters long, designed to house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). This facility will contain the world’s largest underground cryogenic detector, utilizing liquid argon at -186°C to detect elusive neutrinos. The depth provides essential shielding from cosmic radiation, ensuring accurate scientific measurements. Notably, the construction team achieved this feat without a single lost-time accident, accumulating over 1.1 million safe work hours. Led by Fermilab, the DUNE project aims to study neutrino properties to better understand the universe's fundamental laws. The excavation utilized restored infrastructure from the historic Homestake mine, demonstrating significant engineering prowess in extreme underground conditions.
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South Dakota Underground Neutrino Facility Wins 2026 Project of the Year Award
The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) project in South Dakota has been awarded the 2026 Project of the Year by the Underground Construction Association. Located 1,520 meters beneath the surface at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, a former gold mine, workers successfully excavated over 800,000 tons of rock to create two massive caverns. Each cavern measures 20 meters wide, 28 meters high, and 150 meters long, designed to house the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). This facility will contain the world’s largest underground cryogenic detector, utilizing liquid argon at -186°C to detect elusive neutrinos. The depth provides essential shielding from cosmic radiation, ensuring accurate scientific measurements. Notably, the construction team achieved this feat without a single lost-time accident, accumulating over 1.1 million safe work hours. Led by Fermilab, the DUNE project aims to study neutrino properties to better understand the universe's fundamental laws. The excavation utilized restored infrastructure from the historic Homestake mine, demonstrating significant engineering prowess in extreme underground conditions.
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