The world's deepest and largest underground laboratory became operational in China, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday (7th Dec 2023). The report said that the 2,400-metre-deep physics laboratory in located in southwest China's Sichuan Province.

* The state agency's report stated that the Deep Underground and Ultra-low Radiation Background Facility for Frontier Physics Experiments (DURF) is located beneath Jinping Mountain in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

* The DURF has a total room capacity of 330,000 cubic metres.

* The report mentioned the scientists think that the lab provides a major boost to the global search for dark matter, which is a hypothetical form of matter that appears not to interact with light or the electromagnetic field.

* It is expected that the lab will open up new frontiers in deep-earth experiments as the extreme depth will help the scientists by blocking most cosmic rays that mess with the observation.

* The underground laboratory has been launched after three years of extensive upgrades and expansion as it is the second phase of China Jinping Underground Laboratory, Xinhua further reported.  

* The facility started construction in December 2020 and was jointly built by Tsinghua University and Yalong River Hydropower Development Company, Ltd.

* The facility, which is offering special testing conditions, is not available to scientists elsewhere.

* As quoted, Yue Qian, a professor at Tsinghua University, said that the location helps DURF to be exposed to a very small amount of cosmic rays  - one hundred-millionth of that on the Earth's surface.

* The facility boasts advantages including ultra-low cosmic ray flux, extremely low environmental radiation, extremely low radon concentration, and ultra-clean space.

* Notably, the first phase of the China Jinping Underground Laboratory was completed and put into use at the end of 2010, with a room capacity of about 4,000 cubic meters.

* Several reports have stated that the facility made several scientific achievements, which have helped China's dark matter direct detection experiments. ..


Source : WIO News