EDITORIAL Study of the sun, deep in a mine

Inco Ltd. is doing some mine development work from which it will never make a cent. And it doesn’t expect to.

Purely in the interests of science, the giant nickel company is enlarging and preparing a mined-out stope at the 6,200-ft level at its Creighton mine in Sudbury, Ont., that will house a 3-nation- sponsored underground observatory for the study of neutrinos.

Neutrinos are particles produced in the fusion furnace inside the sun, and a group of scientists from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom will set up the laboratory in the Creighton mine for the purpose of conducting a major study of these elusive particles.

The general objective will be to learn more about the source of the sun’s energy, and (to quote one of the researchers, George Ewan, a physics professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ont.), “to provide further understanding of the physical processes governing the evolution of stars as well as the fundamental properties of matter.”

The laboratory, which was just something of a vague proposal when we first commented on it in this space nearly two years ago, is now an entirely serious project, with a price tag of $37 million attached, to be funded by government money from the participating countries. An exhibit on the project opened recently at Science North, in Sudbury.

The laboratory’s main element will be a large tank of purified heavy water installed in the mine stope and surrounded by some 2,000 light sensors. These sensors will look for tiny flashes of light emitted as the neutrinos react or are scattered in the tank of heavy water. The reason for establishing the lab deep in a mine shaft is to make it relatively free from radioactive interference which would prevent accurate measurements of the neutrinos.

None of this research is likely to have any direct impact on mining per se, but it’s to Inco’s credit that it is spending considerable time, money and effort to make the cosmic research possible.

We could all benefit, ultimately, from its results.