Hiring for Ash River NOvA plant begins

As part of a scientific investigation into the origin of the universe, plans are moving forward on the NOvA project, called the world’s most advanced neutrino experiment.

Located about 40 miles from International Falls on the Ash River Trail, the facility — a NuMI Off-Axis Electron Neutrino Appearance (NOvA) detector lab that is part of the University of Minnesota’s School of Physics and Astronomy — will house a 15,000-ton particle detector that will investigate the role of subatomic particles called neutrinos in the origin of the universe.

A ceremonial ground breaking to recognize the completion of the building and the start of the construction of the detector is set for April 27. Details will be released as they are finalized.

Researchers say the new laboratory will expand the university’s international reputation as a leader in neutrino research. The University of Minnesota currently operates the Soudan Underground Laboratory near Tower, the only physics laboratory of its kind in the United States. Physics experiments at Soudan focus on three major topics: the stability of matter, the nature and interaction patterns of the cosmic rays, and neutrinos.

Neutrinos are elementary particles that often travel close to the speed of light, lack an electric charge, are able to pass through ordinary matter almost undisturbed and are thus extremely difficult to detect. Neutrinos have a minuscule, but nonzero mass. Most neutrinos passing through the Earth emanate from the Sun, and more than 50 trillion solar electron neutrinos pass through the human body every second.

Project NOvA is part of the new neutrino physics research program with a “Far Detector” at Ash River in addition to a “Near Detector” at the main neutrino injector facility at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill. The Ash River site was selected as the furthest possible U.S. location that is in a direct line from the neutrino beam from Fermilab. The neutrinos that reach the far detector must pass through the Earth before emerging in Minnesota.

Gary Feldman, co-spokesperson of the NOvA experiment and Baird professor at Harvard University, said the project has moved into the next phase at the Ash River site.

“The building is now finished and now they’ve started preparation to build the detector there,” Feldman said.

Feldman continued that crews are beginning to put together a machine he referred to as “the pivoter.” Feldman said the detector will be built on the pivoter and described the structure as a large table that large blocks, weighing several tons each, will be constructed upon.

“The machine moves down the hall and pivots to an upright position and will have to do this 29 times before we finish the detector,” Feldman said. “(Construction crews) will probably have the first module of the detector done in the fall and will build pretty steadily after that for the next year and a half.”

Bill Miller, NOvA lab supervisor, reported that hiring at the lab has begun.

“We are in the interviewing phase right now and hiring at the rate of two new employees every two weeks,” he said. “We have a crew of 14 right now and we need to be at (about) 40 people by the end of April. We will be running two 10-hour shifts per day, four days per week. We are currently waiting for the completion of the large block pivoter so that we can start building the first block.”

At the ground-breaking event for the facility in May 2009, then-Congressman James Oberstar said, “This project is part of a bold, visionary initiative which will have profound implications for our understanding of the structure of the universe.”

 The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $40.1 million in funding for the construction project. Fermilab, which manages the project, will receive an additional $9.9 million in ARRA funding for purchasing key high-tech components from U.S. companies, allowing those firms to retain and hire workers.

For more information on the project, see www-nova.fnal.gov/fermilab_nova.pdf.