Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufm.h53a0997r&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #H53A-0997
Mathematics
Logic
1899 General Or Miscellaneous
Scientific paper
Salt mines are radiologically much quieter than other underground environments because of ultra-low concentrations of natural radionuclides (U, Th, and K) in the host rock; therefore, the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a government-owned, 655m deep geologic repository that disposes of radioactive waste in thick salt near Carlsbad, New Mexico, has for the last 15 years hosted highly radiation-sensitive experiments. Incidentally, Nature started her own low background experiment 250ma ago, preserving viable bacteria, cellulose, and DNA in WIPP salt. The Department of Energy continues to make areas of the WIPP underground available for experiments, freely offering its infrastructure and access to this unique environment. Even before WIPP started disposing of waste in 1999, the Room-Q alcove (25m x 10m x 4m) housed a succession of small experiments. They included development and calibration of neutral-current detectors by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, a proof-of-concept by Ohio State University of a flavor-sensitive neutrino detector for supernovae, and research by LANL on small solid- state dark matter detectors. Two currently active experiments support the search for neutrino-less double beta decay as a tool to better define the nature and mass of the neutrino. That these delicate experiments are conducted in close vicinity to, but not at all affected by, megacuries of radioactive waste reinforces the safety argument for the repository. Since 2003, the Majorana collaboration is developing and testing various detector designs inside a custom- built clean room in the Room-Q alcove. Already low natural background readings are reduced further by segmenting the germanium detectors, which spatially and temporally discriminates background radiation. The collaboration also demonstrated safe copper electro-forming underground, which minimizes cosmogenic background in detector assemblies. The largest currently used experimental space (100m x 10m x 6m) is the North Experimental Area (NExA). There, Enriched Xenon Observatory (EXO) collaborators have since mid-2007 been assembling and outfitting six modules and associated structures that were pre-assembled at Stanford University, then dismantled, and shipped to WIPP. Transporting the modules underground presented several interesting challenges, all of which were overcome. Access through increasingly cleaner joined modules leads to the class-100 clean room detector module. Inside, a time projection chamber (TPC) contains 200kg liquid Xe- 136 (the largest non-defense related stockpile of an enriched isotope ever assembled for research). After the experiment starts in early 2009, it is expected to run for 3-5 years. University of Pennsylvania researchers recently sampled WIPP salt to attempt measuring stable Ne-22, resulting from the interaction of cosmogenic muons with Na-23 and preserved in the halite lattice, to determine variations in the cosmic-radiation flux. They in turn could reveal the history of nearby supernovae. University of Chicago/Fermilab researchers evaluate whether to install a superheated-fluid bubble-chamber to search for weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). A helium-filled solar neutrino TPC, dark matter and neutron detectors, and proton-decay and supernova-neutrino detectors are other projects that were and are under discussion. Rounding out the spectrum of possibilities are experiments to investigate the effects of long-term ultra-low-dose radiation on cell cultures and laboratory animals to verify or falsify the linear, no- threshold hypothesis. WIPP welcomes additional proposals and projects.
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