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 Guests at the SNO facility groundbreaking ceremony |
The purpose of the SNOLAB is to host Canadian and International experiments designed to help us better understand the basic nature of our universe and its evolution. Scientists will study the smallest known particles of matter, the core of our sun – and the mysterious, invisible dark matter that was created after the Big Bang. It is believed that dark matter constitutes more than 90 percent of all mass in the universe. The project is being funded with a grant of $38.9 million by the Canadian Innovation Fund.
 Proposed layout of underground lab |
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Research is being led by physicists from Carleton University and involves teams from Queen's, Laurentian and the universities of British Columbia, Montreal and Guelph. International contributors include Oxford, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the universities of Pennsylvania and Washington. The initial SNO experiment was an international collaborative and was successful in confirming that neutrinos have mass. Neutrinos are sub-atomic particles, created in the sun, that pass through us at the speed of light and at a density of 10 million per cm2/sec. Scientists believe that there are lower energy neutrinos which will be the subject of future studies at the SNOLAB. The current project (SNO II) is an extension of the existing facility and will create a new 32,000 square-foot clean room, several smaller laboratory caverns, as well as rooms for chemical processing and ultra-low background gamma counting. The size and shape of the new underground facility will take into account future expansion possibilities. The project will involve the excavation of about 70,000 tonnes of rock at a depth of about 2 km below the surface of the earth. |
Acres was retained by Carleton University to provide overall project management, procurement and construction management for the SNOLAB underground project. In this capacity, Acres primary responsibilities include project definition, critical design review, verification of all plans and requirements quality assurance, logistics, construction coordination and safety, information management, budget and cost control.
Significant engineering challenges are associated with this project, since the facility is located 2 km below surface and in a fully operational mine. All materials, equipment and personnel will be transported through Inco's access shaft without any interference to normal mining operations. Additionally, the contractor will be required to share some of the underground services with Inco's miners. It is therefore critical that Acres ensures unsurpassed quality assurance and safety standards.
The design is well under way, exploratory drilling cores are being studied, and procurement is in progress for equipment and services. The excavation of rock is expected to start in May 2004 and be completed in late 2006. Outfitting of the caverns with services and creation of an Ultra-clean environment will follow with the SNOLAB available for experiments in April 2007.
For further information, please contact:
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Satish Bhan, Project Manager Acres International, Oakville, ON 905-469-3405 sbhan@acres.com
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