Underground Lab Would Cost U.S. Billions

摘要

The Department of Energy (DOE) would need to spend between $ 1.2 billion and $2.2 billion to build and equip an underground particle physics laboratory, according to a study presented last week to a federal advisory panel. The figures set the price for maintaining a thriving particle physics program on U.S. soil. "If we want a domestic particle physics program, this is what it's going to take," says Milind Diwan, a particle physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York. However, some researchers worry that DOE, which is spending $795 million this year on particle physics, won't be able to ante up. "Is this going to happen with this price tag?" asks Juan Collar, a physicist at the University of Chicago in Illinois. "I look at the numbers and I go, 'Oh, my goodness!'"