Ask 100 South Dakotans what they think about the super secret underground lab affectionately called SURF, located in Lead, South Dakota, and you will certainly receive back 100 different answers with a wide spectrum of support and criticism.
A recent article published in The New York Times has undoubtedly put Lead in the crosshairs of a news audience who probably believes we are “fly over country” and has further brought to light a staggering revelation to those of us who live here just how much of America’s tax dollars have been used to fund the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE project.
Read the article in full here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/30/science/astrophysics-dune-neutrinos.html
Here just one portion that made our eyes pop a bit!
…”But the project’s grand ambition has brought grand challenges, not all of them foreseen. The infrastructure of the mine shaft had to be overhauled before the lab could get the rocks out and the experiment in, delaying the excavation and costing at least $300 million. And Fermilab’s particle accelerator had to be upgraded — a billion-dollar expense — to deliver enough neutrinos to the detector. In 2021 the Department of Energy gave the lab a failing performance grade, and in 2023 it reopened the lab’s management contract to new bidders. Then, in May 2023, an iron worker fell 23 feet onto concrete and was severely injured. Work was halted for the remainder of the year, allowing the lab “to look at all our procedures and ensure the safety of our people,” Lia Merminga, Fermilab’s director, said. The initial phase of the project — a first measurement using the two detectors in the first cavern — was originally estimated to be completed in 2035 at around $1.5 billion. It’s now scheduled for completion by 2040 at $3.3 billion. This does not include the billion-dollar accelerator upgrade or the two additional detectors that scientists hope to add, just the first of which will cost another $300 million. All told, the cost to American taxpayers for the entire undertaking could approach $5 billion”…
$5 billion dollars for just this one project and according to a recent article via SDPB, “SURF is announcing what they’re searching for – letters of interest for experiments, proposals, and projects that can only take place in a deep-underground lab.”
Looks like “the science” is full steam ahead out there in them thar hills. The only question is, can the taxpayer wallet keep up?
Photo curtesy of Sanford Underground Research Facility.
