Scientists inch closer to beaming neutrinos from Chicago to Black Hills

Successful test delivers DUNE steel beam a mile underground at Sanford Underground Research Lab

Supported from above by a crane, the L-beam is carefully moved into position by the rigging team for transport down the shaft in Lead, South Dakota. (Courtesy of Matthew Kapust, SURF)

Teams from Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois have successfully completed the first test lift and lowering of a six-ton L-shaped steel beam for construction of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).

Transporting a large, irregularly shaped steel component down a narrow mine shaft into a cavern a mile underground at SURF in Lead is no small feat, particularly with elevator-like cargo space about the size of a backyard storage shed.

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But SURF officials say the successful test is a significant step forward in the ongoing development of the underground science lab.

“Our entire team was excited to see the steel arrive in South Dakota for testing,” said Jolie Macier, far detector and cryogenics project manager with Fermilab.

The first two beams, delivered in January, are part of the external structure for DUNE’s massive cryogenic vessels in the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility. Once assembled with 2,500 tons of steel, they will help form a structure measuring 216 feet long, 62 feet wide and 60 feet high. After the internal insulating material is installed, the integrated structure will support and house a particle detector, used in SURF’s quest to understand neutrinos — ghostly particles that were once impossible to detect.