Carleton, along with the SNOLAB Institute and their Canadian and international partners, announced the grand opening of SNOLAB on May 17 at an event in Lively, Ontario. SNOLAB is an underground research facility situated two kilometres beneath the surface of the Earth. It is located at the site of the Vale Creighton Mine near Sudbury, Ontario.
“The Government of Canada is committed to ensuring that Canada is a world leader in science and technology. We are providing our innovators — our colleges, universities, businesses and industries — the support they need to work together and create high-quality jobs, economic growth and long-term prosperity,” said the Honourable Christian Paradis, Minister of Industry. “Congratulations to Carleton University and all of the SNOLAB partners. We look forward to the future breakthroughs, discoveries and innovations that will result from theresearch performed here.”
"SNOLAB is a first-rate facility that has transformed the possibilities for physics research in Canada and for researchers from around the world,” said Kim Matheson, Carleton’s vice-president (Research and International). “Carleton researchers played a leadership role in the creation of the lab, and will continue to conduct cutting-edge research there.”
SNOLAB is the only research facility of its kind in Canada. It is currently the deepest, cleanest underground laboratory in the world. The research experiments are either in progress or under construction:
HALO - A helium and lead observatory used to detect supernovas. HALO recently began collecting data, and it is the first experiment at SNOLAB to do so.
COUPP – Acollaboration that uses bubble chambers to search for dark matter in the form of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs).
DEAP-1 – A seven-kilogram liquid argon dark matter detector.
DEAP-3600 – A second generation experiment that searches for dark matter particle interactions on liquid argon.
EXO – An experiment which attempts to measure the mass of the neutrino and determine its nature.
MiniCLEAN – A prototype experiment used to test the practicality of liquid neon as a scintillation material for neutrino detection.
PICASSO – A dark matter search experiment.
SNO+ - A new experiment using the existing SNO detector.
SNOLAB is an expansion of the facilities constructed for the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) solar neutrino experiment, conducted between 1999 and 2006. The original SNO experiment provided some of the first conclusive evidence thatneutrinos have mass. Excavation of the underground laboratory expansion began in 2004, with research beginning in the newly expanded space in 2011.
"I want to congratulate Carleton, the SNOLAB Institute, and all the partners who made this facility a reality," said Greater Sudbury Mayor Marianne Matichuk. "I'm very proud to be a part of a community where environmental sustainability and cutting-edge technology work hand-in-hand to bring forward change and scientific discovery."
Including the existing SNO facilities, SNOLAB has 5,000 square metres of clean space for experiments and the supporting infrastructure. This is in addition to a 3,100 square metre building constructed on the surface of the Creighton mine site to support the underground lab.
SNOLAB is an excellent example of the benefits of university co-operation. The project was jointly proposed by Carleton University, Laurentian University, Queen’s University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Guelph and the Université de Montréal. Carleton is proud to be the administrative lead on a world-class lab doing cutting-edge research.
The construction of the surface facilities and underground laboratories of SNOLAB have been funded by the International Joint Venture program of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the Ontario Innovation trust, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund corporation and FEDNOR. Operating costs have been supported by the Ontario Research Fund’s Research Excellence Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), CFI and member institutions. The City of Greater Sudbury has provided a five-year grant for public education at SNOLAB.