FW: Hoover Dam underground lab

Based on the comment by Janet during today's phone call about Hoover Dam, I
communicated with Hank Sobel at UCI.
His two replies follow:

-----Original Message-----
From: Dick Hahn [mailto:hahn1@bnl.gov]
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 8:56 AM
To: Sobel, Hank
Subject: Hoover Dam underground lab

Hi Hank,
        As I may have told you, I am currently involved in planning
discussions for a future theta-13 experiment. In a conference phone call
today, someone mentioned the idea of doing some prototype measurements
underground (under water?) at Hoover Dam. I recall that when you, Toni,
Sheila, and I
visited the Dam, you mentioned that you had done a neutrino experiment
there with Fred et al. years ago. Are there are any details written down
someplace about the properties of the Hoover Dam lab, such as
overburden, available space, etc.?

Best regards,
Dick

-----Original Messages-----
From: Henry W. Sobel [mailto:hsobel@uci.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 1:35 PM
To: 'Dick Hahn'
Cc: Michael Moe
Subject: RE: Hoover Dam underground lab
Message # 1
Hi Dick,
Mike Moe had a lab in the dam where he did his Double Beta Decay
experiments. I'll look and see if there is anything around, but probably
Mike would have all that information.

Regards,
Hank

Message #2
Here is a write-up about the site that I found in our 1989 DOE renewal:

A very satisfactory underground site has been found where there is good
protection from cosmic radiation. The room is 35 x 114 x 40 feet high
and houses the "Arizona tunnel plug outlet works" at the Hoover Dam.
This cavity is beneath nearly 400 feet of rock, has easy horizontal
access, plenty of power and cooling water for the magnet, and a 20-ton
overhead crane. We have approval from the Project Manager to put the
experiment in place in September of this year (1988).

The distance from UCI is 295 miles, a five-hour drive or a one-hour
flight to nearby Las Vegas. We plan to set up a telephone link to
monitor the detector from UCI, and the people at the dam have agreed to
do a daily check for us.

The cosmic flux will be two orders of magnitude below what we have been
living with. Natural radioactivity in the walls of the tunnel has been
found to be the same as at the present location in our Physical Sciences
building. (By erecting a water shield around the whole apparatus at
Irvine we found that the natural activity of the room has only a minor
effect inside the TPC.)

Regards,
Hank
Received on Tue Jul 27 13:58:52 2004