May 20, 2004
Underground lab plan unveiled
A preliminary plan for a national science and engineering laboratory deep underground near Leavenworth is being unveiled this week as a starting point for a formal proposal.
The plan, or pre-proposal, will begin giving more detail to ideas that previously have been discussed in general terms. It will be available for public viewing at several libraries in the Leavenworth-Wenatchee area, as well as at the UW and on the Internet.
Public comment will help shape a formal proposal to be submitted to the National Science Foundation later this year, said Wick Haxton, a UW physics professor leading the underground lab effort. The NSF then will decide whether to provide financing for detailed site evaluation and project design.
“This is a starting point for the people of the Leavenworth area to decide what they want the project to look like and define how it will fit into the community, if it is ultimately selected by NSF and the venture goes forward,” he said.
Haxton and John F. Wilkerson, also a UW physics professor, are co-leaders of a collaboration proposing construction of a national science and engineering lab beneath Cashmere Mountain, 8 miles west of Leavenworth in the Washington Cascades. In their plan, the laboratory would be carved deep in the 8,501-foot granite mountain, with access through two 3-mile-long access tunnels.
The project is being referred to as the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory/Cascades.
The National Science Foundation last month established a framework under which it will accept proposals to begin the process of picking a location and building a lab by the end of the decade. The NSF, which will underwrite the project, is expected to accept formal proposals for financing feasibility studies later this year.
Besides the Cascades proposal, bids are expected to come from groups in California, Colorado, Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia. NSF could select any or all of the proposals for further study, and could decide in 2008 whether to finance actual construction.
Haxton and Wilkerson previously supported a South Dakota location but since have concluded that the Cashmere Mountain site is better suited for scientific needs. They and others in the Cascades collaboration are available to meet with community groups to discuss specifics of the pre-proposal.
The Cascades collaboration is requesting that public comments be received by Aug. 1, though comments received after that can be incorporated as appropriate.
Within a week, the Cascades pre-proposal document should be available for viewing at at the Visitors Information Center and elsewhere.
It also is available on the Internet at http://int.phys.washington.edu/NUSEL/icicle.html .
Written comments may be submitted to: Wick Haxton, Box 351550, University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195
Comments also may be submitted by e-mail to icicle@phys.washington.edu.
The finalized proposal will be submitted to the National Science Foundation this fall.
