Low Background Counting, Materials Purity, Radon issue Prisca Cushman University of Minnesota

1. Low Background Counting, Materials Purity, Radon issue Prisca Cushman University of Minnesota Not LBC… New Name?AALRMS Assay and Acquisition of Low Radiation Materials and Space N.B. NOT yet approved by the Working Group Cross-cutting Group of about 20 drawn from Dark Matter Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Solar Neutrinos Energetic Particles Also met with 1-km vertical space NNBAR (neutron monitoring, NAA) Nuclear Astrophysics (neutron backgrounds) Contacted (future integration) with E&O, Geomicrobiology, PODDS, radiometric analysis, Induced Flow-Transport-Activity, Cosmic ray imaging

2. S4 Vision for the Low Background and Materials Purity Group http://zzz.physics.umn.edu/lowrad DUSEL must have world class facilities capable of providing assay and ultra-clean materials support for ISE local staff with the requisite expertise. lead and direct future R&D efforts to develop enhanced sensitivities Implementation plan early, well-equipped LBCF at DUSEL ramping up fast enough to keep up as experiments come online. support for distributed sites which are already serving the community E&O component (training physics students, HS projects on screeners) Gamma screening - HPGe at both 300’ and 4850’ level. Alpha, Beta, and Rn counting- Commercial pre-screeners, new technology that is currently being developed. Radon emanation chambers and systems. ICP-MS enabling technology- reach sub-uBq/kg level. clean reagents and wet-lab NAA and RNAA- radiochemistry (NAA),wet lab (RNAA), dedicated HPGe’s Underground storage of ultra-pure materials- cryogens, water, noble liquids and gases, copper, lead and germanium. Underground ultra-pure material production facilities - electroformed copper, Kr removal, crystal growth, clean machine shop, EDM machines, and laser welders. Large Whole Body Counter - longer term, ultra-sensitive, large samples, deep

3. In Nov ’07 Town Meeting, the community agreed to submit a single S4 proposal articulate an integrated program define the necessary technologies and capabilities specify R&D program needed to develop screening and materials purity integration of physics experiment needs identification of the larger user community (bio, geo, environ, security) integrate with ILIAS (e.g. JRA-1) participate in worldwide underground site characterization open database material radiopurities assay capabilities existing and new facilities – enable effective scheduling simulation packages (Cosmo n, fission/a,n ) R&D activities (Identified by Town Meeting, Removed by S4 process definition) enhanced beta screening measure the rate/spectrum of the ambient neutron background development of low radiation photodetectors production of ultra-pure electroformed Cu enhanced ICP-MS sensitivity, 39Ar removal, and Kr removal. DUSEL R&D S5 Experiments, DUSEL R&D S5 SBIR, DUSEL R&D Experiments, DUSEL R&D

4. We organized ourselves via the wiki tool • Assigned names for the major tasks in the ISE • Job for each person • Identify major questions and subsystems • Identify the type and amount of engineering required • Provide extensive references to projects and people who have already done similar work (Define the expertise ) • Integrate with the other Physics groups around that task • Next Meeting May 9 • Teleconferences every 2 weeks

5. Identified Major Worry #1: S4 is designed to prepare for the DUSEL MREFC But LBC must occur very early THUSEarly Implementation at SUSEL should include some LBC functionality We (S4) are not the group to do this But we may be the people to do this * Alerted SUSEL management to this need (discussions with Jose) * Work to understand this in parallel * Seek other funding: State? EPSCoR? DUSEL R&D ? * Need something AT SUSEL, but also consider funding screening devices in other sites that will be moved to DUSEL later. Training of students Test elements and assembly issues for Detectors going to DUSEL Local expertise, cost effective.

6. Major Worry #2 Defining the overlap will be tricky: We do not want 3 Integrative “common” proposals that duplicate work and interfere destructively. What is the scope of the AALRMS S4 now that R&D is gone? Is it just a loose collection of the other Physics Groups? Dbl Beta Groups DM Groups SolarNu’s AALRMS Facilities PLAN: Common Proposals could simply identify representatives that work with the AALRMS project engineers… or the OTHER WAY AROUND? Facilities could clearly spell out their responsibilities and lend resources to AALRMS…. Or simply take over those aspects.

7. Consider seriously whether there shouldn’t be ONE INTEGRATIVE PROPOSAL (rather than multiple “common proposals” ) This S4 then becomes a proposal which * Connects Facilities to Experiments Managed by the Lab itself, since it is not an EXPERIMENT * Contains working groups within it that are organized by experiment LBC is then defined by experiments, but shared via identified commonalities as well as other common infrastructure * Explores the common infrastructure within Physics Groups (via their working groups in THIS S4) between Physics Groups (via another working group in this SAME S4) * Identifies Synergies to geo/bio * Creates Integrative tools and common databases