Science experiments will go forward at Kimballton mine

Research on physics will continue at the deep underground mine in Giles County despite last week’s announcement that the Kimballton site did not make the short list for a deep underground lab funded by the National Science Foundation.

Two finalists were selected from eight competing sites for the project: Homestake Mine in South Dakota and the Henderson Mine in Colorado. The Kimballton team is involved in discussions with representatives of Homestake to form a partnership that would bring a portion of the DUSEL (Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory) geosciences and engineering research to Southwest Virginia.

The university is in the process of building a smaller-scale lab inside the mine with support from the Naval Research Laboratory. In addition, project leaders are hopeful that other collaborative opportunities will come to fruition as the process for establishing the federal underground laboratory moves forward.

“Virginia Tech faculty provided extraordinary leadership at all stages of project development and deserve high praise for their efforts,” said Provost Mark McNamee. “We have demonstrated that Virginia Tech is able to compete credibly at the highest levels for major funding.”