The Pumps Remain Alive At Homestake Mine

NSF and DOE have come to some agreement with regards to keeping the pumps running at Homestake Mine, the proposed site for DUSEL.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE) have agreed to pay for pumping water out of the Homestake Mine near Lead so that it does not flood. That accord should preserve the site while the two agencies wrangle over how to transfer primary responsibility for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) from NSF to DOE. The real question is which, if any, part of the original $875 million multifaceted design will survive.

That is certainly the question on the future of DUSEL, especially now considering the enormous cuts being proposed to DOE's Office of Science budget. So having the DOE taking over the funding and running of this lab now could not happen at a worse time.

Zz.

Scientists Taking Next DUSEL Step

The plan to build the underground lab at the Homestake mine is progressing.

In July, the National Science Foundation chose Homestake as the site for a proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory. Now, scientists and engineers are designing the proposed lab. "This meeting this weekend is crucial in putting together the initial suite of experiments," physicist Kevin Lesko of the University of California at Berkeley said.

Still, that thing about the water still rising is a bit disconcerting.

The South Dakota science authority re-entered the mine in July, and crews are slowly working their way down the 5,000-foot Ross Shaft to install pumps to remove the water that has been filling the mine since it was sealed shut in 2003.

Dave Snyder, executive director of the science authority, told scientists Friday that water had risen from the bottom of the mine, 8,000 feet underground, to 4,996 feet underground "as of an hour ago."

If water reaches the 4,850-foot level, South Dakota's plan for a Sanford Laboratory will be more expensive, but Snyder said the water had risen only 4 feet since July 27. He estimated the water would not reach "the 4850" until February, and crews are working double shifts to start pumping before then.

I can already see it. One of the safety courses[1] all workers have to take before working there will be on how to swim! :)

Zz.

[1] If you have worked in a US Nat'l Lab, then you'll know that you have to go through all of these safety classes first, depending on the nature of your job, before you can start work.

Design Selected for DUSEL

This just in. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has just announced that the design proposed by the team from University of California-Berkeley has been selected for a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL). This underground laboratory is proposed to be built at the Homestake mine in South Dakota.

A 22-member panel of external experts, all screened for conflicts of interest, exhaustively merit-reviewed proposals from four teams and unanimously determined that the Homestake proposal offered the greatest potential for developing a DUSEL, and NSF concurred with the panel's recommendation. The agency's selection of the Homestake proposal provides funding only for design work. Any decision to construct and operate a DUSEL would entail a sequence of approvals by NSF and the National Science Board; funding would then have to be requested by the Administration and approved by Congress.

One can only hope that this is not going to be another one that get supported in the beginning, but left dangling in the middle.

Zz.

Edit: Yowzah! I can't believe the amount of grief I got due to my typo of "Homestake" into "Homestead".