The Arapaho Project

February 22, 2004
Letter to the editor

The Editor,

Physics Today

American Center for Physics

One Physics Ellipse

College Park, MD 20740-3842

Dear Sir:

In the article by Toni Feder, "South Dakota Vies for Underground Lab, Scientists Seek Backup Sites", February 2004, several potential site locations were mentioned that are being considered for a National Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (NUSEL). Each of these locations has a variety of specific attributes that make them possible choices for consideration, including the Homestake and Soudan mines. Missing from that list, however, is a recently discovered site in Colorado that may prove to have the greatest potential of all the proposed locations.

Early in 2003, personnel from the Henderson molybdenum mine, a division of Phelps Dodge Corporation which is located in central Colorado, came to the Clear Creek County Planning Commission to ask if there was any interest in preserving certain of the mine’s facilities for use after the forecasted date for mine closure. Steve Schultz, Chairman of the Planning Commission and Jack Stauffer a member of the P.C. expressed interest and Jack toured the mine in April of 2003 to determine what features, if any, could be of value in the County’s ongoing development plan. He found that office buildings, maintenance and machine shops, utilities, water supplies and sewage treatment facilities had been sized for a work force of over 2000. These features had obvious commercial value for potential future development.

Other of the more obscure features of the mine were also intriguing to us because Steve is an electrical engineering designer and Jack is a mechanical engineer who has a background in nuclear physics. After several phone contacts with particle physicists at Colorado State University and the University of Colorado, and accelerator personnel at Stanford University, we determined that the Henderson might be the perfect site for underground high energy physics projects, including the proposed "UNO" neutrino detector.

The Henderson mine is located on a 30,000-acre private inholding in the Arapaho National Forest that spans the Continental Divide 40 miles west of Denver. Interstate 70 and US Highway 40 provide excellent all weather access from the mine to Denver, and Denver International Airport is slightly over one hour from the Henderson site. The mine itself consists of over 150 miles of roughly 15-foot diameter drifts. The main shaft is 28-foot in diameter with a vertical elevator capable of carrying up to 50-ton loads.

Crushed rock and ore are removed from the mining area by a horizontal conveyor, through a 10-mile long straight tunnel under the continental divide to the surface for milling and disposal. Two 30 megawatt substations are fed from two independent 115kv transmission lines providing 100% redundant electrical power to the complex. The entire facility, above and below ground, is connected with fiber-optic communications.

The Arapaho Project Task Force was formed in January of 2003 with the cooperation of the Henderson management and Clear Creek County Commissioners to explore possible uses for the mine in the field of high energy physics. The modern equipment; conveyers, trucks, and crushers, coupled with the existing permits, waste processing facilities, and the experienced workforce that is currently in place will allow the removal of 2.5 million tons of additional rock at about $7.50 per ton.(the UNO project) This compares with an estimated minimum of $40.00 per ton for removal of rock at the Homestake or Soudan facilities.

In October of 2003 the Arapaho Project fostered the formation of the Colorado Alliance for Underground Science and Engineering (CAUSE) with the goal of further evaluating the Henderson’s potential for high-energy physics. Currently the members of CAUSE are: The Arapaho Project, Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado State University, and the Henderson mine. CAUSE and the Arapaho Project are currently identifying stakeholders and decision makers in the physics community to increase awareness of the Henderson and its potential for economical, high-energy physics research.

In your article the author quotes Kenneth Lande of the University of Pennsylvania saying that: "Homestake has a clear advantage (over other sites) financially and in terms of timetable." Yet water pouring into Homestake will require extensive, and expensive, rehabilitation measures just to regain the status quo in a mine that is over one hundred years old. In contrast, all the infrastructure and modern computer controlled systems necessary for safety and efficiency in deep underground mines are in place and currently functioning in the Henderson mine. The proposed location for the UNO detector at the Henderson mine is under adjacent Harrison Mountain with some 5000+ feet of overburden. Harrison Mountain is located approximately one mile southwest of current mining operations and could easily share facilities, shafts and infrastructure to coexist with the ongoing mining operations. These attributes predict that the excavation for, construction of, and activation of proposed HEP experiments, including the UNO detector, could be realized inexpensively compared to other sites requiring extensive rehabilitation.

The proximity of the Henderson mine to the Denver metropolitan area is perhaps as great an asset as the physical properties of the mine itself. The Colorado School of Mines, 30 miles east of the Henderson in Golden is an international leader in state-of-the-art mining techniques and underground engineering and works with the Henderson on a regular basis.

The University of Colorado, Colorado School of Mines and Colorado State University all have nationally respected physics and engineering departments. In addition several National laboratories are already located in the Golden and Boulder vicinities (NIST, NOAA, and NREL). The result is a highly educated and skilled workforce is readily available in the Denver metropolitan area and the surrounding area provides first class recreational opportunities year round.

We believe that the scientific community, and particularly the particle and high energy physics group’s participants, would benefit immensely from a close and unbiased evaluation of the Henderson mine site and its potential for a national underground laboratory and the advancement of human understanding of our universe.

Please visit our website at: www.thearapahoproject.net

Respectfully submitted,

__________________ _____________________

Stephen C. Schultz Jack B. Stauffer, P. E.

Executive Director Deputy Director

Arapaho Project Arapaho Project