Page 9 - EUREKA! Fall 2017
P. 9
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.
8 science.carleton.ca science.carleton.ca 9
