Diana looks at the possibility of bringing the study of proton decay to North Yorkshire

9.36.57am GMT Wed 9th Dec 2009

On Monday Diana visited the potash Mine in Boulby, North Yorkshire to meet with participants of the proposed project for the design of a pan-European Infrastructure for Large Apparatus studying Grand Unification and Neutrino Astrophysics (LAGUNA). The LAGUNA consortium is evaluating possible extensions of the existing deep underground laboratories in Europe including Boulby.The leading UK participants are from the Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Sheffield.

For more information on the project:

http://www.hep.shef.ac.uk/research/laguna.php

The Boulby potash mine, situated on the North Yorkshire coast, is the UK's only commercial potash mine and the most important non-hydrocarbon mineral operation in Britain. The mine started production in 1973 and is currently managed by Cleveland Potash Ltd and employs over 800 workers. The Boulby Underground Laboratory, located at the mine, is one of just a handful of facilites world-wide suitable for housing and supporting ultra-low background and deep underground science projects. The laboratory is one of the 5 deep underground science facilities linked by ILIAS - the European initiative designed to promote and develop large scale infrastructures supporting astro-particle physics across Europe.

(Photo shows Diana with project coordinator André Rubbia from ETH Zurich and Professor Neil Spooner from the University of Sheffield)