Page 8 - EUREKA! Fall 2017

David Sinclair stands

at the bottom of a

cylindrical cavern two

kilometres beneath the
rolling scrubland of

Sudbury, Ontario. The

walls of the Cryopit at
LAB LEGACY SNOLAB — a world-

class science laboratory

accessed via a spur

tunnel from an active
THE SUDBURY NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY nickel mine — are shiny

WAS LAUNCHED AS A SINGLE white trowel-smooth
shotcrete. The concrete
EXPERIMENT, BUT ITS SUCCESS floor is covered with

SPAWNED A DYNAMIC SCIENCE FACILITY an epoxy finish to seal

in surface dust and

create a washable
By Dan Rubinstein surface. But other than

Photos by Luther Caverly some blue ventilation

tubes hooked up to the

facility’s air purification

system, a few bundles

of cable and a couple

pallets of shrink-

wrapped electronics

equipment being stored

here temporarily, the

enormous space — 20
metres high, with a

diameter of 15 meters —

is empty.
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