Decks cleared for Neutrino facility

“The Union Cabinet of the government of India, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the establishment of INO at an estimated cost of Rs 1,500 crore. This project aims at building a world-class underground laboratory primarily to study neutrinos. Determination of neutrino masses and mixing parameters is the most significant open problem in particle physics today and is the key goal of the INO project.

The underground facility will develop into a full-fledged science laboratory for other studies as well in physics, biology, geology, all of which will exploit the special conditions existing deep underground,” Mondal said.

In addition, an Inter-Institutional Centre for High Energy Physics will be established at Madurai, about 110 km from the proposed INO site for operationalising the underground laboratory, for detector R&D and human resource development. The government has also approved the construction of a 50 kton magnetised Iron Calorimeter detector to study properties of neutrinos and to address the issue of neutrino mass hierarchy.

An important outcome of the project will be training young researchers in large-scale experimental science, including detector instrumentation technology, an area which needs strong development in the country.