Underground lab under review

LEAD, S.D. (AP) — A proposal to build a science and engineering laboratory more than a mile underground at the former Homestake gold mine is being scrutinized this week.

Kevin Lesko, principal investigator for the proposal to build the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) at Homestake, and members of the Homestake Collaboration and representatives from the Sanford Lab are in Berkeley, Calif., for a review of DUSEL plans.

The three-day meeting involves about 100 people representing the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and other key funding agencies scrutinizing work the Homestake Collaboration has done so far on the DUSEL proposal.

Lesko said the review, held at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will examine the strength of the Homestake team and its strategies to secure a DUSEL at Homestake.

Completing this review will be a major milestone for future funding to continue with the Homestake proposal, which could go to Congress for funding approval as early as 2013, officials say.

The National Science Foundation picked Homestake as the site of a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory up to 8,000 feet underground. It gave the Homestake Collaboration $5 million a year for three years to put together a proposal that will convince the NSF and Congress to fund the lab.

This week’s review is one of several that will occur over the course of that funding.

In the meantime, the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority is pumping water out of the mine in preparation for building an interim science laboratory at the 4,850-foot level.

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