Construction began Saturday in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong
Province, on an experimental facility which will offer a platform
for Chinese and foreign scientists to work together to research a
new kind of neutrino oscillation.
It was the second biggest cooperative program Chinese high
energy scientists have ever conducted with foreign counterparts.
The first cooperative venture was in October 1988 when a
positive-negative electron collider was built in Beijing.
Scientists from China and the United States have cooperated and
carried out legions of scientific research using the collider.
More than 100 people, including government officials and foreign
diplomats, including Dr. Robin Staffin, Associate Director of
Science in the US Department of Energy, attended Saturday's
construction commencement function.
Neutrino Oscillation is a kind of intriguing behavior by a
sub-atomic particle called a neutrino.
The new facility is being built in the mountains near two
nuclear power plants: Daya Nuclear Power Plant, which has four
reactors with a combined thermal output of 11.6 million kw in
operation, and the Ling'ao nuclear power plant. Both will serve as
sources of anti-neutrinos for the future facility's
experiments.
Workers will build three underground experimental halls
connected by long tunnels into the mountain, thus shielding the
experiment from unwanted cosmic radiation.
Each hall will feature a 10-m deep water-pool within which eight
anti-neutrino detectors will be deployed. The water protects the
detectors from nearby radiation that interferes with measurements,
and helps identify surviving cosmic radiation.
The first experimental hall is expected to be ready by the end
of 2008. Commissioning of the detectors in this hall will take
place in 2009.
Civil engineering construction is anticipated to last about two
years, with installation of the last detector scheduled for
2010.
Upon completion of the new facility, more than 190 scientists
from six countries and regions including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
the United States and Russia will come over to do research work,
according to Chen Hesheng, Chief of the Institute of High Energy
Physics with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The facility will have a budget of 250 million yuan (about
US$31.25 million). China will be responsible for infrastructure
construction and construction of the first four detectors, while
the United States will be responsible for making of the rest of the
detectors.
Wang Yifang, chief scientist on the experiment, said he felt
confident that the program would make important contributions
toward finding new breakthroughs in China's particle physics
research, establish new horizons in global neutrino research, and
improve the overall strength of Chinese science and technology.
(Xinhua News Agency October 14, 2007)
