In a major milestone for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) in the US, approximately 4500 tonnes of steel beams will soon be moved 1.5 km underground to build the structural elements of two enormous detectors. CERN is playing a key role in this international endeavour to explore the mysterious properties of neutrinos.

On 7 May, CERN Director-General Mark Thomson attended an event at Sanford Underground Research Laboratory (SURF), South Dakota, to celebrate the occasion and sign a beam that will be installed for DUNE’s first detector module. Each of the two planned modules will be roughly the size of a five-story building and will help researchers measure neutrinos with an unprecedented level of detail. DUNE will receive neutrinos sent underground from Fermilab in Illinois to SURF, 1300 km away, enabling physicists to reconstruct precise 3D images of their interactions. 

“This important milestone for DUNE is a testament to the strong scientific partnership between CERN and the United States” explained Mark Thomson. “CERN is playing a pivotal role in the development of its prototype detectors and providing the two enormous cryostats for the experiment itself, while the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories likewise are playing a critical role for CERN with state-of-the-art superconducting accelerator magnets for the High-Luminosity Large Hadron Collider.”

Read more in this press-release from Fermilab.