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The underground lab coming up as part of the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) has secured all mandatory clearances, an expert said here.
Apprehensions on this count are unwarranted, according to Naba K. Mondal, senior professor, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR).
SOUND DATA
TIFR has been declared the nodal institute leading 26 others for implementing the multi-thousand-crore project coming up at Theni in Tamil Nadu.
The site was chosen based on data provided by the Geological Survey of India, Mondal said in a public lecture.
The flat terrain with good access road, low rainfall and humidity, and vertical rock cover of 1,289 m are considered ideal features, Mondal said.
Kerala State Science and Technology Museum organised the lecture on INO project, which had kicked up a controversy in recent times.
NEUTRINO DETECTOR
The project involves construction of a neutrino detector in an underground laboratory, which would be accessed through a 1.9 km tunnel.
Geologists had certified the stability of the rock. The tunnelling work would not affect dams in neighbouring Idukki district in Kerala, he added.
“INO is designed to help us understand the basic nature of neutrinos. It will explore neutrino mass parameters and its other properties,” Mondal said.
The neutrino detector would consist of magnetised iron plates arranged in stacks with resistive plate chambers in between.
SAFE PARTICLES
The plates would provide a magnetic field to detect neutrinos and antineutrinos. Detector technology and its applications are a key component of the project.
Neutrinos are the most abundant particles in nature and interact rarely with matter. Every second a human body receives four-lakh billion neutrinos from the sun.
Earth’s natural radioactivity itself releases 50 billion neutrinos and nuclear plants release 10 to 100 billion. The human body also emits about 340 million neutrinos every day.
The INO project has created an interface with industry for fabrication of particle detectors and stimulated interest in basic science research.
INO would help Indian science address key questions in neutrino physics and develop cutting-edge technology for particle detectors, Mondal said.
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