OTHER ELECTRONICS & NANOTECHNOLOGY
WORLD MARKET
UPDATE
January 2011
McIlvaine Company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Thailand Pushing Forward on Nanosafety Regulations
Xolve Develops Nanotech Materials
Waters Plans New MS Headquarters in UK
Brand New SAR Lab Opens At Northwest EMC
CRC Builds Lab for University of Cambridge
Cleanroom Opens in Ventspils, Latvia
Brooks Instrument Makes Cleanroom Investment
UK Nano-forum Holds First Meeting
China WLCSP Established R&D Subsidiary in CA
Currier Plastics Makes Investment in Quality Lab
Brooks Instrument's New Cleanroom Facility
ROSNANO, Sverdlovsk to Create Nano-Tech Centre
Aerolia Adds Cleanroom at Picardy Plant
Thailand Incentives for Nanotechnology
The National Nanotechnology Center, NANOTEC, is the key player in pushing for the implementation of this plan. Recently, NANOTEC held a public hearing session in Bangkok where stakeholders from various sectors are given an opportunity to voice their opinion on the draft plan. To date a total of six hearings have been held.
"The approach is aimed at creating better public understanding about nanotechnology, promoting its safety, and encouraging public participation in its development" said Prof. Sirirurg Songsivilai, Executive Director of NANOTEC. "We are working with the Nanotechnology Association of Thailand to issue the Nano Mark, a label informing customers whether products have nano material content. The nano mark will be introduced this year, starting with paint, textile and household products" said Prof. Sirirurg.
Nano safety labeling can be expected in five years when regulations on nano safety and ethics are fully enforced.
Xolve Inc., a young nanotechnology company that grew out of research at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, said it has raised $2 million.
The funding round included two strategic investors: DSM, a global Dutch materials and chemicals company, and the Nordic Group of Companies, which includes Flambeau Plastics in Baraboo and Columbia Par Car in Reedsburg. NEW Capital Fund, Appleton, and Peak Ridge Capital, a Boston based firm with offices in Madison, also participated.
"We continue to be impressed with the breadth of commercial applications for Xolve's core technology and are excited about the opportunity to be working with both Wisconsin as well as international investors," Jason Smith of Peak Ridge said in a statement.
Xolve grew out of the discovery of a new principle in materials science by UW-Platteville professor James Hamilton and then-student Philip Streich. Their discovery addresses a key technical problem - how to make nanomaterials dissolve in industrial solvents - that has held back their adoption in practical applications.
The discovery will help industry achieve the promise of nanomaterials, which theoretically can have 1, 000 times the conductivity of copper and 350 times the tensile strength of steel, said Hamilton, an Xolve founder.
Xolve was the 2008 Governor's Business Plan contest winner and was named by Business Week as one of the top start-ups of 2008. At the time, it was known as Graphene Solutions.
"This funding completes our work to get the company launched in a significant way," said John Biondo, Xolve's president and chief executive. "We can now begin to create jobs and work on the products and applications that can make a difference in the world.".
Waters announced a land-purchase agreement with the Royal Bank of Scotland where it will build a new mass spectrometry headquarter in Wilmslow, Cheshire in the UK.
The new facility, to be situated on the 37-acre Stamford Lodge site, will bring together Waters' mass spec operations located on four separate sites in South Manchester and Altrincham. The facility will include state-of-the-art customer demonstration laboratories, R&D capabilities, and expanded manufacturing capacity.
The new headquarters "will be designed to accelerate the fate of innovation with increased access for the world's scientific thought leaders," said Brian Smith, Waters' vice president of MS business operations.
Final sale of the land is subject to planning and building permission from the Cheshire East Council. It is expected to open in 2013.
Northwest EMC, Inc., an EMC and EMI Test and certification service provider, is officially announcing the addition of SAR Evaluation to the extensive list of accredited services they offer.
The FCC and other spectrum authorities around the world have adopted limits for exposure to radio frequency (RF) energy. For devices, such as cell phones, used closer than 20 cm to the head or body, the limits are given in terms of the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), which is a measure of radio frequency energy absorbed by the head or body. As part of the equipment authorization process, manufacturers are required to ensure that their devices comply with these limits for exposure. The FCC and Industry Canada limit for public exposure is a SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg). The European Union and many other countries have a SAR limit of 2.0 W/kg.
Northwest EMC now has a state-of-the-art SAR lab located inside of a semi-anechoic chamber to maintain temperature control, eliminate influences from outside sources, and achieve the most accurate readings possible.
To furnish their brand new SAR facility, NW EMC selected a government-preferred supplier of SAR evaluation systems, SPEAG out of Switzerland, and their latest, most accurate near-field EM scanner on the market, the DASY5 to perform the evaluation scans. Equipped with probes, tissue simulants, and phantoms, the DASY5 can evaluate wireless devices operating from 400 MHz - 6 GHz. In addition to the DASY5, Northwest EMC uses the R&S CMU200 to support all cellular operating modes up through EVDO and HSPA Rel. 6.
The FCC and Industry Canada limit for public exposure is a SAR level of 1.6 watts per kilogram (1.6 W/kg). The European Union and many other countries have a SAR limit of 2.0 W/kg.
Clean Room Construction (CRC) of Rochester, Kent, UK has completed the construction of a new Nano Technology Laboratory for the University of Cambridge.
The new facility, located at the Nano Technology Centre on the West Cambridge Site, was purpose-built to house a new electron microscope. CRC has provided the laboratory in which the microscope is contained.
CRC’s brief was to design, install and validate a new laboratory area to achieve tight ambient control of 21 +/- 0.5ºC or better in addition to anti-vibration measures, RF shielding and minimal air turbulence as these would all have an adverse effect on the operation of the microscope.
The presence of SF6 gas also presented a hazard to occupants so a gas detection and extraction system was also installed together with other process utilities to service the requirements of the new microscope.
“Having been involved in the design and build of the University’s original Nano Technology Centre, CRC was delighted to again be involved in this latest chapter of development in the field of Nanotechnology,” said CRC’s project director Richard Rowe.
The ISO Class 7 (Class 10,000) cleanroom, the first in the Kurzeme region of Latvia, is located in the Ventspils High Technology Park (VHTP) and will be used by companies that operate in high technology fields such as electronics and satellite technologies.
The cleanroom is said to record very low levels of environmental pollutants such as dust, microbes and chemical vapors owing to a special air conditioning system, which maintains a stable temperature and constant level of humidity and cleanliness.
Ivars Eglajs, chairman of VHTP, said: “The creation of this cleanroom in Ventspils will clearly promote the competitiveness of companies of the Baltic region that operate in the fields of high technology.”
He added: “The cleanroom allows both companies and research centers to develop and manufacture more sophisticated products in new market niches as well as participate in joint projects of satellite design with the European Space Agency. We also plan to offer the cleanroom to students for practice and acquirement of skills.”
The VHTP cleanroom will mainly be used for the final assembly, contact welding, testing and packaging of electronic products and their components. It will also be used for completing satellite components and for carrying out certain processes in controlled conditions.
Three companies have already started to use the VHTP cleanroom facilities: Ventspils Elektronikas Fabrika will be testing specific electronic products; LEO Research Centre will develop satellite technology products; and VHTP will offer training courses. The cleanroom is also open to other firms both in Latvia and abroad.
The VHTP cleanroom has been created as part of a co-operation between Ventspils and Tartu in the Space Technology Research and Training project in partnership with Ventspils University College, Tartu University and Tartu Observatory. The Norwegian government funded the project in a bilateral financing arrangement.
The VHTP was opened in December 2006.
Brooks Instrument, a provider of advanced flow, pressure and level solutions, has opened a new cleanroom manufacturing facility at its headquarters in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, US.
The new Class 100 (ISO Class 5) cleanroom will serve primarily as the production area for Brooks’ GF Series of ultra high-purity mass flow controllers for the hi-tech and electronics industry.
To support its new cleanroom operations, Brooks has added nearly 100 jobs in Hatfield.
“This is the largest investment Brooks Instrument has ever made in its manufacturing facilities worldwide,” said Clark Hale, chief executive of Brooks Instrument. “It signifies us taking major strides into the electronics industry and our commitment to the future growth of Brooks.”
Brooks’ 2009 acquisition of the Instrumentation Division of Celerity, a supplier of precision instruments and advanced gas and liquid delivery solutions for the semiconductor, solar, and electronics industries led to the need for larger cleanroom manufacturing operations of the GF Series and other devices for the electronics market. Increased demand for consumer products requiring semiconductors such as high-brightness LEDs, smartphones and tablet computers is also driving Brooks’ expansion into the sector.
Brooks Instrument’s portfolio includes glass and metal tube variable area meters (rotameters), thermal mass flow controllers and meters, Coriolis mass flow controllers, meters and transmitters, pressure control products, magnetic level instruments, and a variety of flow accessories.
The company also owns Key Instruments, which offers precision machined acrylic flow meters, molded plastic flow meters, glass tube flow meters, electronic flow meters, and flow control valves. It has manufacturing plants, sales, and service offices in the US, Europe, and Asia.
A top level forum made up of regulators, industry players and consumer groups is holding its first meeting as part of a UK bid to tackle a slew of issues surrounding nanotechnology in the food sector.
Intelligence gathering on nano research and the controversial proposal to set up a nanotech register for food and packaging products are just some of the major issues to be addressed at the inaugural meeting of the Nanotechnologies and Food Discussion Group.
The group was put together in the wake of a parliamentary report raising concerns that the food and packaging sectors were being too secretive about nanotechnology. In January 2010, the House of Lord concluded that industry risked a public backlash if continued in its reluctance to disclose details of its research into the emerging technology.
The last of 32 recommendations from the upper chamber’s Science and Technology Committee called for the establishment of an “open discussion group…to discuss issues surrounding the application of nanotechnologies in the food sector”.
Some 12 months on, the Food Standards Agency announced that it would be co-coordinating the forum which will aim to boost information exchange on nanotechnology in the food sector.
The group will be chaired by the FSA and consist of 15 stakeholders from academia, industry, other government departments and consumer groups, as well as policy leads from the FSA. Representatives from the Food and Drink Federation, consumer group Which?, as well as Leatherhead Food Research are among those due to attend the meeting.
A FSA spokesman said the new group would be likely to meet three or four times a year with a review on its effectiveness carried out after 18 months. As well as laying out the scope of the group, the meeting will also begin to examine the issues of food industry intelligence gathering on nanotech and the formation of a UK register of nanofoods on the market.
In March 2010, the FSA board accepted a recommendation to compile a confidential database of food industry research into nanotechnology. It also accepted a recommendation that the agency create and maintain an accessible list of publicly available food and food packaging products containing nanomaterials that have been approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
However, a Government report published soon after warned that forcing food and packaging companies to submit details of nanotechnology research to a national database could trigger an R&D exodus from the UK.
The paper also admitted that new legislation would likely be needed to enforce such a move and appeared to suggest the emphasis of the approach would be through “intelligence gathering and engagement with industry experts” rather than a compulsory database.
China WLCSP Co. Ltd., provider of wafer level (WLP) miniaturization technologies for the electronics industry, confirmed its commitment to the US market with the opening of a new R&D center in Sunnyvale, CA.
The R&D center will support China WLCSP's regional activities with OEMs and industry partners in the growing mobile handset market.
"The US is a strategic market, which experiencing solid growth in the high-end mobile device market," said Wang Wei, CEO of China WLCSP. "We have several important customers and partners in the US, where we plan to play a leading role over the next few years."
China WLCSP is a leading provider of wafer level miniaturization technologies and processes for the electronics industry. China WLCSP enables new levels of miniaturization and performance by applying its unique expertise in the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of materials and interconnect. As a result, China WLCSP’s technologies are widely adopted in high-growth markets including consumer, computing, communications and medical. China WLCSP is headquartered in Suzhou, China.
Currier Plastics, Inc continues to make investments in the latest technology, this time in their Quality Lab. The newest addition is the Quincy Lab Incubator. "Accelerated testing in the QA lab has become more common place in recent years. We are partnering with our customers to investigate new applications using plastics and we are frequently asked to provide data that will quickly prove the glass to plastic conversion theory. We have to keep up with changing times if we are going to stay ahead of the game," says Tim Walawender, QA Engineer at Currier Plastics for 8 years.
The new incubator enables Currier Plastics to perform tests that require a constant thermal environment within +/- .04C accuracy. The proportional–integral–derivative (PID) microprocessor controller has a setting for lock out mode to avoid changes during testing and also stores temperatures so that the user is able to track deviation from set point during the testing process.
Walawender added that "having this new incubator in our lab has opened up a lot of on-site testing here at Currier that in the past we would have had to rely on outside quality labs for this type of testing. The incubator has been in operation non-stop since its arrival as we have new compatibility studies to prove so we can move forward towards prototyping and or production."
"The addition of more QA lab equipment is in keeping with our corporate commitment to V², a practiced methodology throughout the facility," says Lynn Knopp, QA Manager. "The customer supplies the drawings and their individual program requirements and it is up to our team to develop a customized quality control plan to identify and obtain special inspection capabilities, from concept through production. The equipment we use must be highly reliable in order to accomplish this task and to help us achieve our ISO guidelines. Whether we are in the theoretical stage or in full production, testing never stops."
Currier Plastics has made a commitment to V² (Value X Velocity). "V² is our trademark approach to combining speed or Velocity with superior Value that incorporates total quality, operational precision, efficiency and established organizational core values," says Gary Kieffer, VP of New Product Development.
Currier Plastics is located in central New York and is the recent recipient of the 2010 Economic Champion by the CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity.
Brooks Instrument, a world-leading provider of advanced flow, pressure and level solutions opened the doors to its new cleanroom manufacturing facility at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its headquarters in Hatfield, Pa. The new Class 100 cleanroom will serve primarily as the production area for Brooks' GF Series ultra high-purity mass flow controllers for the high tech and electronics industry.
"This is the largest investment Brooks Instrument has ever made in its manufacturing facilities worldwide," said Clark Hale, chief executive officer of Brooks Instrument. "It signifies us taking major strides into the electronics industry and our commitment to the future growth of Brooks."
Brooks' 2009 acquisition of Celerity's Instrumentation Division led to the need for larger cleanroom manufacturing operations of the GF Series and other devices for the electronics market. The increased demand for consumer products requiring semiconductors such as high-brightness LEDs, smartphones and tablet computers is also driving Brooks' foray into the industry.
To help support its new cleanroom operations, Brooks added close to 100 jobs at its Hatfield offices in 2010.
Ufa in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan is home to a new manufacturing base for high-precision electrochemical machining stations. The technologically advanced equipment produces a range of items, from the common to extremely complex, using nanostructured materials and nanometrically structured surfaces.
Total investments for the project, under which new production is being established, are 285 million rubles. RUSNANO will invest up to 120 million rubles. Co-investors in the project are venture fund RVT Invest and a group of individuals who developed the project's technology.
General director of the project company ECM, Alexander Zaitsev, DSc Engineering, demonstrated the work of several of the machines to those who had gathered for opening ceremonies. Participants saw how the electrochemical machining stations, which are capable of reworking virtually all current-conducting metals and alloys, including the hardest of them—produce parts.
"Our scientific group has been working in electrochemistry for more than 30 years. It is rewarding for us to see our developments put to practical use. Here in the Republic of Bashkortostan, for example, several thousand people have already had operations with microsurgical instruments manufactured by Optimed with ECM's equipment. In addition to high-technology medicine, we work in engine construction for the aviation industry, automotive and in manufacturing instruments and fittings. These are just a few areas where our units can be useful," said Mr. Zaitsev.
"Consider the set of the features —like machining precision, productivity, and the finish surface quality —these electrochemical machines significantly outperform other machinery in the field today. For instance, it takes about half an hour to process a single titanium blade for an aircraft engine using the traditional method. Our machines will prepare several aircraft engine blades in just minutes," noted RUSNANO managing director, Department for Investments, Konstantin Demetriou.
A centre for the development of start-ups (new innovative projects) in the nanotechnology sphere will be created in the Sverdlovsk region in 2011, Governor Alexander Misharin told reporters.
In his words, 1.7 billion roubles (USD 1 = RUB 30.27) will be invested in the new structure, which will be created when the regional authorities and ROSNANO (Russian State Corporation for Nanotechnologies) sign an agreement.
The document is expected to be signed in January-March 2011, he said.
"Signing of an agreement on the opening of a start-up nano-center is the initial step for strengthening interaction with the state corporation," Misharin said, adding, "Our enterprises won ROSNANO's tender. And now the sides are signing appropriate documents."
Germany's Bayer AG says it plans to expand its production of plastics and high-tech materials in China, investing some €1 billion ($1.33 billion) at a site in Shanghai.
Bayer said that its plans, to be completed by 2016, will increase its focus on the Asia-Pacific region, where it "expects consistent growth in its customer industries."
The company plans to more than double its capacity to produce MDI, a raw material for polyurethanes, as well as raising production of polycarbonate and boost research and development activities.
It says it will move the headquarters of its polycarbonates unit to Shanghai from its main German site at Leverkusen to be closer to the booming Asian market.
French aircraft component manufacturer Aerolia has added a €220m composites unit to its plant at Méaulte in Picardy, France.
The unit has begun production of fuselage and shell unit panels for the nose section of the Airbus A350 XWB.
Aerolia has divided the 18,000m2 (193,680 sq. ft.) covered area of the unit into five manufacturing areas, including a 5,320m2 (57,243 sq. ft.) cleanroom containing the composites lay-up station and the station where the prepared skins are placed on the curing mould and the stiffeners are integrated. An automatic machine simultaneously places 32 carbon tows and the Aerolia teams then prepare the panels for curing.
The curing area consists of a 7m diameter autoclave with an inside length of 14 meters.
A twin-headed machine trims and drills the components in the trimming area, while the non-destructive testing area performs quality control of the fuselage and shell unit panels using ultrasonic inspection.
Finally, after painting in one of the three paint booths, the teams of the four assembly lines, which are equipped with nine assembly stations and four robot stations, perform the assembly and riveting of clips and frames on the panels.
Christian Cornille, chief executive of Aerolia, said at the opening of the new unit: “This new unit will be, for our Airbus customer, a cornerstone in the success of the A350 XWB. This aircraft combines composite and metal technologies, which together with systems and pipes, are our specialties. We can now ramp up production in this unit.”
Terepac Corporation has been accepted into the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, California, an incubator in the heart of Silicon Valley. Terepac’s footprint in Silicon Valley is the company’s first presence in the United States.
Founded in 2004 to commercialize innovations in printable miniaturized electronics, the company is now transitioning from R&D into pilot line production. The company’s investors include John Thompson, (former vice chairman of IBM Worldwide) and John Pollock (former Chairman and CEO Electrohome Limited) while its technical advisors include Dr. Joel Birnbaum (former Chief Scientist of Hewlett-Packard, and former Director of HP Laboratories), and Dr. Yoshio Nishi (former SVP and Director of R&D of Texas Instruments’ Semiconductor Group). Terepac collaborated with research consortium IMEC in 2009.
Whereas conventional methods of semiconductor packaging cannot effectively handle objects smaller than one-half millimeter, Terepac’s proprietary process liberates Moore’s law enabling sophisticated microelectronics to be printed on flexible substrates at a fraction of the size -- down to submicron scale -- with nanometer precision and at a cost far lower than that of creating conventional rigid circuits. Entire devices with microprocessors, memory, and sensors can be reduced to less than a millimeter square, thinner than paper, and flexible enough to bend around a pencil with no sacrifice in performance.
Because the size, weight and rigidity of the underlying electronics often determines the form of an end product, Terepac’s breakthroughs enables existing electronic devices to be delivered in order of magnitude smaller (and flexible) form factors when compared to today’s offerings. In addition, Terepac enables electronics to be cost-effectively embedded into a range of objects and devices, transforming them into smart objects. Given the rise in smart phones, mobile phones, geolocation, and the Internet of Things, the ability to enable objects to report on their location or condition, as well as to communicate, interact, and transact with users, will become increasingly valuable, says the company.
Terepac is headquartered in Canada’s Technology Triangle in Waterloo, Ontario, and in 2010 established a European subsidiary, Terepac GmbH, in Dresden, Germany (Silicon Saxony).
The aim of this initiative, which has been in the works since 2009, is to encourage more use of high-technology in Thailand's NANO manufacturing. This type of business will be categorized as a top priority business which brings greater benefits to the country and boost Thailand's positioning as an attractive investment destination.
Former Industry Minister Mr. Chanchai Chairungruang, after the BOI board meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in 2009, said, "In response to the changing investment trends, the board has given the go signal to expand BOI's investment promotion scheme to cover new business activities. The revised scheme will also offer additional tax privileges to projects that promote technology and healthcare, and will carry some amendments meant to make Thailand's investment environment even more attractive for foreign investors."
"This is a good example of how government initiated incentives can help boost the development of a young but vibrant technology" said Prof. Sirirurg Songsivilai, NANOTEC Executive Director. "It is estimated that by 2015, the nanotechnology market may be worth more than $2.4 trillion, therefore, it is an inducement for Thailand to cash in on nanotechnology. We will announce these incentives at Nano tech 2011 in Tokyo in February".
The incentive program will include:
maximum incentives including exemption of import duties on machinery
8-year exemption of corporate income tax, regardless of location
exemption of import duties on machinery,
exemption of corporate income tax according to investment zones.
Dow Electronic Materials, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, broke ground on its new Eastern China manufacturing facility. Government officials from Zhangjiagang city and employees took part in a groundbreaking event. The new facility is located at the company’s Zhangjiagang site in JiangSu Province, approximately 98 kilometers from Shanghai. It will meet the growing demand for materials for printed circuit board (PCB), electronic and industrial finishing, and photovoltaic (PV) markets in Asia. Start-up is planned for late 2011.
"Asia has become the growth engine for electronic and solar cell markets. As customers continue to look for advanced technologies, adding infrastructure in Eastern China is critical to provide them with the most technically-advanced materials, processes and service, in as time-efficient manner as possible," said Helen Zhang, global general manager, Interconnect Technologies for Dow Electronic Materials. "The new facility is well positioned to manufacture and supply materials to serve electronic and solar cell markets, and provide customer service and technical support locally. We look forward to growing with customers through close collaboration.”
"Greater China represents great opportunities for growth in the electronic materials business," said Peter Sykes, president of Dow Greater China. "The new facility in Eastern China demonstrates our commitment to this important region, and is part of our ongoing growth strategy in this market. When the new facility opens in a year, it'll mark an important step in growing our presence and product offerings for electronic materials not only in China, but also in Asia. "
In addition to the location in Zhangjiagang, China, Dow Electronic Materials has manufacturing facilities to serve the printed circuit board (PCB), electronic and industrial finishing, and photovoltaic (PV) markets in Dongguan, China; Taiwan, Japan, US and Europe, as well as sales and customer service offices in Dongguan, China; Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, US and Europe.
Ambitious plans to build one of the world's deepest underground laboratories have suffered a serious setback. The US National Science Board (NSB) has refused to continue to fund the design of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL), leaving some 1,000 researchers hoping to do science there uncertain about its future.
The lab is set to be housed in Homestake, a former goldmine near Lead, South Dakota. The mine is an ideal location for sensitive experiments trying to catch sight of hard-to-detect particles such as neutrinos and dark matter. At almost 2,500 meters deep, it would shield DUSEL from the cosmic rays that would otherwise drown out signals from the lab's elusive targets.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF) and its partners, including the US Department of Energy, have already committed more than $300 million towards DUSEL, which is expected to cost more than $800 million in total. But Edward Seidel, assistant director for mathematical and physical sciences at the NSF, says that the $29 million awarded to the University of California, Berkeley, in 2009 to design and prepare the mine for DUSEL has proved inadequate.
Safety concerns arose earlier this year about the mine shafts that scientists will use to access the facility. It is also proving difficult to pump groundwater from the ageing mine. As funds could not be reallocated from other parts of the project, program managers this month requested another $19 million now, with perhaps another $10 million to come in the spring of 2011, to continue that preparatory work.
But the NSB, which must approve large outlays by the NSF, refused both requests. Although the infrastructure for each of the lab's experiments will be managed by an allocated lead agency, the board was concerned by the perceived lack of a clear stewardship plan for the mine's infrastructure, raising the prospect that the NSF could face ballooning costs. Board members also believe that the energy department should contribute more than its current commitment of $100 million.
“It's clear that the current stewardship model will have to change.”
"We don't know if this is a glitch or a death knell. I think the users feel like we're in limbo right now," says Steven Elliott, a neutron scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and chairman of the executive committee of the DUSEL Research Association, which represents the researchers who expect to do science at the new lab.
The NSB's decision also exposes internal differences at the NSF about the best way to pay for major science infrastructure projects within a funding system more attuned to supporting research programs. Although the decision does not mean that the NSF will not build or steward the facility, says Seidel, "it's clear that the current stewardship model will have to change". The DUSEL project team is now talking to all of its partners to formulate a plan to keep preparatory work going.
Much of that work involves designing the experiments that will be lowered into caverns near the surface, and 1,500 and 2,300 meters underground. These include the Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment — in which neutrinos will be fired at detectors in DUSEL from 1,000 kilometers away at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois, to find out why there is so much more matter than antimatter in our Universe — and LUX, the world's most sensitive search for dark matter. Beyond particle physics, DUSEL is expected to include a broad suite of geophysical and biological experiments, as well as a facility for testing the effects of sequestering carbon dioxide deep underground.
Building the lab would allow the United States to compete effectively with other countries that have underground facilities, such as the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory near Hida, Japan. "Here in the United States we are conspicuous in not having a deep underground science lab, in contrast to other countries with large science programs," says Rick Gaitskell, a particle astrophysicist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, who hopes to use DUSEL.
The Homestake mine currently houses the Sanford Underground Laboratory, which hosts smaller-scale versions of experiments intended for DUSEL. The additional funding is needed in part to transition the operations of this lab into the planned construction of DUSEL. The lab has enough funding to maintain the mine until May 2011, says its spokesman, Bill Harlan. A final NSF decision on whether to go ahead with DUSEL was expected in 2011, but may now be delayed.
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