Omnibus Appropriation Funds Lab Operations and Future Experiment

(Lead, S.D.)?The Sanford Underground Research Facility and one of its future experiments received good news this month when the Consolidated Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2014 was passed by Congress and signed by the President.

The Omnibus Appropriations Act, which funds the federal government through September 2014, provides $15 million for facility and science operations activities related to the Sanford Underground Research Facility at both the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (oversight) and Sanford Lab (lab management and operations) in Lead, SD. 

The Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE), a collaborative project with Fermilab, will receive $26 million, with $10 million going toward research and development and $16 million going to project engineering and design activities. Called the ?next frontier of particle physics,? the experiment will follow neutrinos as they travel 800 miles through the earth, from FermiLab in Batavia, Ill., to Sanford Lab.

?This is great news for South Dakota,? said Sanford Lab Executive Director Mike Headley. ?We very much appreciate the South Dakota congressional delegation?s efforts to secure strong federal support for our current operations and to make a strong statement for LBNE, which is key to the lab?s future.?