Science / Medicine : Neutrino Study Site Chosen

The Chamberlain Creek barite mine near Magnet Cove in Hot Spring County, Ark., has been selected as the site for a proposed $21-million physics research project encompassing the world’s largest device for detecting subatomic particles called neutrinos. The selection was made by scientists from six universities and a federal laboratory participating in the Gamma Ray and Neutrino Detector project, called GRANDE.

If the project is approved, construction will take about three years. The owner of the mine site, National Lead Co., has agreed to donate it to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Neutrinos are ultra-small, subatomic particles emitted from stars and produced by cosmic rays that shower Earth.