The Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake will advance our understanding of the universe and demonstrate the feasibility of an even larger project — the National Science Foundation’s proposed Deep Underground Science & Engineering Laboratory (“DUSEL”) at Homestake.

Gov. Mike Rounds inspects an underground pump

The Sanford Laboratory will host a broad range of experiments at several levels of the former Homestake gold mine in Lead, from the surface to 4,850 feet underground. Dr. Ray Davis of Brookhaven National Laboratory built his solar-neutrino detector at the 4850 Level, and in 2002 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for discoveries that changed the course of physics. A new “dark matter” experiment already is planned for the Davis Cavern.

Lead, S.D., photo by Google

Funding for the Sanford Underground Laboratory includes a $10 million federal HUD grant, $35 million from the South Dakota Legislature and a $70 million gift from Sioux Falls philanthropist Mr. T. Denny Sanford. Mr. Sanford designated $20 million of his gift for a Sanford Science Education Center at the Homestake surface campus.

On July 10, 2007, the NSF named Homestake the site for a proposed DUSEL, which would include labs and other facilities on the surface and throughout the mine – to a depth of 8,000 feet or even deeper. The NSF awarded the University of California at Berkeley $5 million a year for the next three years to develop a technical design for the laboratory. A group of scientists called the Homestake Collaboration is developing the proposal, led by principal investigator Dr. Kevin Lesko, who is a physicist at Berkeley, and by co-principal investigator Dr. Bill Roggenthen of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology.