AEC building infrastructure for Rs1,500-cr Neutrino Observatory project

The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) has approved an expenditure of Rs66.31 crore for development of site infrastructure of the proposed Rs1,500-crore `Nutreno Observatory' during the 12th plan period (2012-17).

Under the project, the AEC proposes to establish a National Centre for High Energy Physics (NCHEP) at Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, minister of state in the ministry of personnel, public grievances and pensions in the prime minister's office V Narayanasamy informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today.

He said 26.825 ha of land has been acquired in Pottipuram Village in Theni District of Tamil Nadu for establishing the project, adding that infrastructure work is being undertaken in 12.155 ha of land.

He said the project has received clearances from the ministry of environment and forests and from the department of environment and forests of the state government.

Development of infrastructure facilities for the project has been initiated with the AEC entering into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) for supply of water to the project site and with the highways department for laying / widening the approach road to the project site.

The detailed project report on the mega project on the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO), with an estimated cost of Rs1,500 crore, is under examination and the project is yet to be approved, the minister pointed out.

The proposal envisages completion of the project within seven years from the date of approval, he added.

The India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project is a multi-institutional effort aimed at building a world-class underground laboratory with a rock cover of approximately 1200 m for non-accelerator based high energy and nuclear physics research in India.

The project includes:

• Construction of an underground laboratory and associated surface facilities at Pottipuram in Bodi West hills of Theni district of Tamil Nadu;
• Construction of an iron calorimeter detector for studding neutrinos, consisting of 50,000 tonnes of magnetised iron plates arranged in stacks with gaps in between where resistive plate chambers would be inserted as active detectors, the total number of 2m X 2m RPCs being around 29,000; and
• Setting up of a National Centre for High Energy Physics at Madurai, for the operation and maintenance of the underground laboratory, human resource development and detector R&D along with its applications.

The underground laboratory, consisting of a large cavern of size 132m X 26m X 20m and several smaller caverns, will be accessed by a 2,100 m long and 7.5 m wide tunnel.

The initial goal of INO is to study neutrinos.

Neutrinos are fundamental particles belonging to the lepton family. They come in three flavours, one associated with electrons and the others with their heavier cousins the muon and the Tau. According to standard model of particle physics, they are mass less. However, recent experiments indicate that these charge-neutral fundamental particles have finite but small mass, which is unknown. They oscillate between flavours as they propagate.

Determination of neutrino masses and mixing parameters is one of the most important open problems in physics today. The ICAL detector is designed to address some of these key open problems in a unique way. Over the years this underground facility is expected to develop into a full-fledged underground science laboratory for other studies in physics, biology, geology, hydrology etc.

Development of detector technology and its varied applications is an important aspect of the project.

The detector R&D, electronics and control, magnet design as well as physics studies and numerical simulations related to ICAL detector is being done in-house at various participating institutions. Development of human resource has also started on a smaller scale in the form of the INO Graduate Training Programme (GTP) under the umbrella of Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), a deemed-to-be University within DAE.