At the suggestion of several collaboration members, I would like to start sending NUSEL-Homestake updates out every several weeks. The collaboration has (in record time) gone through a series of reviews: the NSAC and HEPAP Long-Range Plan exercises, two site reviews by the Physics Division of the NSF, two NRC reviews (Quarks and the Cosmos and Neutrino Facilities reviews). This consumed a lot of collaboration time, but to our credit, it has kept the creation of a deep underground US laboratory very much on the front burner scientifically and in Washington.

The NRC NFAC Barish Report has been submitted to Marburger. The NSF internal process is not very transparent, but the normal course of events would entail Science Board review of NUSEL next.

VERSION #2 PROPOSAL

The NUSEL-Homestake Executive Committee decided this week to draft a version #2 proposal, to replace the one submitted in early June, 2001. There are a number of reasons for this:

1) The community has done a great deal of work at the Lead physics and earth science meetings, at NESS02, and in recent preparations for detector presentations to NSAC and HEPAP. Many of you helped draft the white papers that are archived on the NUSEL web page. We have a much better feel for readiness and scope of future NUSEL projects. Thus we intend to incorporate much of this material into a Science Book, with the resulting project timeline helping guide development of NUSEL.

2) There have been crucial advances in our understanding of the Homestake site. The original proposal called for a costly extension of the Yates shaft (from 4850 to 7400 ft). Our engineers have proposed an alternate and clearly superior design which avoids this. Scientific access to the 4850, 7400, and 8000 ft levels will be provided by the Ross and #6 shafts, while long-term mining capability is retained, employing the Yates and #4 shafts. A systematic series of shaft and lift improvements will be undertaken so that the Ross/#4 provides nearly clean-room-quality transport of massive loads from the surface laboratory to depth, while the Yates and #4 can be placed into service or taken out of service, as needed. Dual access will be maintained to all levels.

A split-level lab -- physics at both the 4850 and 7400 ft levels -- will give experimentalists some flexibility in siting their detectors while helping distribute the ventilation load. A proton decay/long baseline detector could be installed at 4850 ft to minimize hoisting costs, while experiments requiring greater depth -- examples include most double beta decay, pp solar neutrino, and next-to-next-generation dark matter detectors -- would be placed at the deep level.

The new design incorporates 5-ft ventilation shafts that will connect scientific levels to other nearby major drifts. This will allow our ventilation engineer to keep scientific areas clean, even while further hall excavations are ongoing. One goal of NUSEL-Homestake is to maintain the ability to provide state-of-the-art designer cavities for experiments, as future needs arise.

3) The new proposal will reflect Lead/NESS02 suggestions for a more sophisticated low-level counting facility and instrumentation for our earth science and geomicrobiology members. A NUSEL earth science steering committee has been formed to help us with aspects of the new proposal. Homestake is of special interest to the earth science community because the mine offers an extensive network of drifts important in meeting the instrumentation goals of the "EarthLab" proponents, while the geomicrobiologists have discovered thermophilic methanogens at the 8000 ft level. Homestake rock is ancient, with isolated pockets of water, important for the geomicrobiologists hoping to discover unique microbial colonies. The geomicrobiologists require clean room facilities and a drilling rig capable of reaching below 16,000 feet -- facilities we will include in the version #2 proposal.

We envision the version #2 proposal being authored by the full collaboration, since so much of the ground work has been done by this community. We hope to complete the Science Book by early April and the full version #2 proposal by the summer.

MINE STATUS

Barrick continues to maintain the mine while completing its reclamation tasks. There is no near-term threat of flooding. Barrick is concerned (as we are) about an extended NSF decision process -- they have expressed unwillingness to accept federal support for maintaining Homestake when NUSEL is not an approved NSF project. Nevertheless recent statements from Homestake Mine managers appear positive to us.

The state governorship changed in January. The new governor, Mike Rounds, has asked his brother and key advisor, Jamie Rounds, to handle NUSEL. Jamie and Mike have met with the NUSEL PI, and have talked to several others in the collaboration. The new administration has many other pressing issues on its plate, and NUSEL is a complex project. Thus our view has been to remain patient while the state decides how it can take on ownership of the needed portions of the Homestake site.

Best regards,
Wick Haxton

for the NUSEL Executive Committee

A. Baha Balantekin, Wisconsin
Tom Bowles, LANL
Janet Conrad, Columbia
Sherry Farwell, South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
Ken Lande, Pennsylvania
Kevin Lesko, LBNL
Bill Marciano, BNL
Marvin Marshak, Minnesota
Tullis Onstott, Princeton
Mike Shaevitz, Columbia
John Wilkerson, Washington