News

January 14, 2010
MiniCLEAN Outer Vessel Completed

Fabrication of the outer vessel of the MiniCLEAN experiment has been completed by PHPK Technologies. LANL and Yale staff were in Columbus, OH, this week to inspect the vessel and perform acceptance testing. The outer vessel will be shipped to SNOLAB, disassembled, and reassembled underground in late 2010.

Outer vessel top dome (closest to camera) and cylindrical sections.

Outer vessel bottom dome (closest to camera), cylindrical sections, and top dome (on crane).

Side view of assembled outer vessel

Yale, LANL, and PHPK inspection team group photo in front of outer vessel.

(Click on image for larger version. Photos courtesy of Frank Lopez.)

December 17, 2009
Steel Deck for MiniCLEAN and DEAP-3600 Installed at SNOLAB

SNOLAB has been working on preparing the Cube Hall underground for occupancy by the MiniCLEAN experiment in late 2010 and the DEAP-3600 experiment in 2011. The deck will provide access to the top of the detectors for deployment of calibration sources and maintenance of electronics and support systems. In addition, the deck will mechanically support the DEAP-3600 acrylic vessel.

Steel deck inside Cube Hall. DEAP-3600 will be installed through the hole on the left, and MiniCLEAN will be installed through the hole on the right. (Click for larger version. Photo courtesy of Fraser Duncan.)

September 23, 2009
MiniCLEAN Inner Vessel Hemispheres Fabricated

Trinity Heads, Inc has pressed the two steel hemispheres that will form the inner vessel of MiniCLEAN, which will enclose the liquid cryogen. The hemispheres will be welded and machined by another vendor in early 2010, and shipped to SNOLAB in late 2010.

Heated stainless steel blank before pressing.

Hemisphere after two rounds of pressing.

Hemisphere in furnace after third round of pressing.

Cooled, finished hemisphere.

(Click on image for a larger version. Photos courtesy of Frank Lopez.)

June 19, 2009
DEAP-3600 Receives Funding from CFI

The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) has awarded $10.5M to the the SNO+ and DEAP-3600 experiments. The DEAP-3600 experiment will be a tonne-scale liquid argon detector situated next to the MiniCLEAN detector at SNOLAB. More information can be found in the CFI announcement and Queen's University press release.

February 2, 2009
MiniCLEAN Outer Vessel in Fabrication

The DEAP/CLEAN collaboration has been working with PHPK Technologies of Columbus, OH in fabricating the Outer Vessel for the MiniCLEAN experiment. The Outer Vessel (OV) surrounds the Inner Vessel and operates with a vacuum inside to thermally insulate the Inner Vessel which contains the cryogenic liquid. The OV is composed of four major parts: the top dome, the two middle cylindrical pieces and the bottom dome. A number of ports in the OV allow for various connections to the Inner Vessel though the OV. The OV will be surrounded by water to shield the experiment from particles coming from the surrounding rock. Currently, PHPK is beginning to weld the flanges to the cylinders and domes and will soon add the various ports to the pieces. The vessel is scheduled to be delivered to SNOLAB, in Sudbury, Canada, in May 2009.

Diagram of MiniCLEAN outer vessel.

Cylindrical center section of outer vessel.

Port into outer vessel.

Top and bottom dome after a heavy snow.

(Click on image for larger version. Photos courtesy of PHPK.)