Two steel components for the upcoming Far Detectors & Cryogenics subproject phase of the LBNF-DUNE project have arrived in Lead, South Dakota. The FDC subproject will start later this year and include the installation of the particle detectors for the neutrino experiment.
The steel components are parts of the cryostats that will hold the detectors. The segments include one structural I-beam and one corner L-beam and will be used for test lifts prior to the arrival of future detector components later this year.
The components were manufactured and tested by a company in Spain on behalf of CERN for the first of two DUNE far detector cryostats in South Dakota. The steel arrived in Houston last week for shipment to Lead. The L-beam measures 5.498 meters x 3.608 meters and weighs 5,400 kg (12083 lbs). There are 92 total L beams and seven different types with slight dimensional/weight variations.
More components for the detectors are expected to begin arriving in Lead in late 2024 for the start of construction. The first large shipments of steel beams will likely begin arriving in the Black Hills region for storage starting in May of 2024.
Once the assembly of the cryostats and the particle detection systems is complete, the detectors will be filled with liquid argon to begin studying the behavior of neutrinos sent from Fermilab’s campus in Batavia, Illinois. The far detector will be the largest and most technologically advanced liquid-argon neutrino detector in the world, more than 20 times larger than existing detectors of this kind.
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