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Oct 7, 2005 10:22 am US/Mountain
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Scientists Want Underground Lab In Colorado
by Mike Hooker
EMPIRE, Colo. (CBS4) ―
Colorado could become home of the United States' first deep underground laboratory.
The underground lab would be near Empire and Red Mountain, not far from Interstate 70. It would be built inside an active mine between 3,000 and 7,000 feet beneath the surface.
The Henderson Molybdenum Mine near Berthoud Pass is the proposed home for this unique project.
More than 500 miners work in underground tunnels and caverns removing ore.
As people go down the elevator sheft, the walls whiz by during the five minute ride half a mile into the earth.
The Henderson Mine is one of two finalist locations for a place where physicists like Bob Wilson, a professor at Colorado State University can get away from the scientific distractions above ground.
"We're going deep to get away from the cosmic rays," Wilson said.
The cosmic rays from space make some experiments inaccurate above ground.
Biologists and geologists also hope to work here.
Lt. Gov. Jane Norton was at the tour Thursday to show support for the project.
A physicist from New York who's in charge of the Henderson mine application to the National Science Foundation was also at Thursday's event.
"when i came here there was no doubt in my mind, this is the place," Chag Kee Jung, the Henderson mine's project chair said.
The plan is to dig the lab's space off an access shaft, away from the mining. The scientists and the miners would share the same ride to work.
The Henderson mine in Clear Creek County is competing with South Dakota for the national laboratory location.
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