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Underground Indian lab on neutrinos soon |
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MUMBAI:
Indian physicists will build a new underground laboratory to revive
experiments on the study of atmospheric neutrinos after a gap of 10 years. The
laboratory— called Indian Neutrino Observatory (INO) — could become
operational anytime after 2010 but currently the physicists are busy on the
feasibility study of the INO project, according to the chief project
coordinator, Prof Naba K Mondal of the Tata Insititute of Fundamental
Research. The Department of Atomic Energy is spending almost Rs 4.8 crore on
a feasibility study which includes development of detector prootypes, Mondal
told PTI here today. “The study should be completed by the middle of next
year,” he said adding two possible locations have been identified to set up
the INO— Pushep in the Nilgiri Hills in south India and Ramman in Darjeeling
in West Bengal. Atmospheric neutrinos were detected for the first time in the
country by an experiment in the Kolar Gold Field in 1965 but such experiments
were stopped when the mine was closed in 1992, Mondal said. |
