Fermilab and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Image Gallery
Measuring 65 by 370 feet, the hole in the ground outlines where the future NOvA detector facility will reside in Ash River, Minn. Crews started blasting in July and will continue to deepen the hole to 40 feet. The construction company will use all of the rubble from the explosions to form a base for roads on the site, serve as backfill to support the structure of the detector facility and lay a portion onto the roof of the building to shield the experiment from cosmic and gamma rays.
Fermilab received more than $50 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for research and development of superconducting radio frequency technology. The technology will be used to build a test area for components needed for the next-generation particle accelerator. Superconducting radiofrequency technology aims to increase the efficiency of transferring particle energy and the amount of energy, speed and mass the particles can acquire.
Fermilab will receive more than $50 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for superconducting radio frequency technology. Some of those funds will be used to build a test area for next-generation particle accelerator components, such as the 9-cell 1.3 GHz superconducting radio frequency cavity shown here.
Construction workers prepare to fill holes with explosives at the NOvA site in Ash River, Minnesota. Crews will blast through 50 feet of rock at the site to accommodate the detector facility. Physicists will use the NOvA experiment to analyze the mysterious behavior of neutrinos sent through the Earth from Fermilab in Illinois to the NOvA detector.
Irina Kubantseva, a technician in Fermilab’s Particle Physics Division, will help test the wavelength shifters in the Fermilab chemistry lab when the first shipment arrives in September. Scientists use the chemicals to change the wavelength of particles of light, called photons, into the required range for the experiment.
Officials break ground at the entrance to the future site of the NOvA detector facility in Ash River, Minnesota on May 1. Fermilab will receive $14.9 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for NOvA, a new neutrino experiment that will seek to explore the mystery of how matter came to dominate antimatter in the universe.
A construction crew began clearing and leveling roads at the NOvA site in Ash River, Minnesota on June 1. Construction of the facility is expected to generate 60 to 80 jobs plus purchase of materials and services from U.S. companies. Fermilab will receive $14.9 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds for the NOvA project.
Jim's Ash Trail Store in Ash River, Minnesota featured the NOvA Project meal special during the groundbreaking ceremony in May.
This rendering depicts the future NOvA detector facility on the property in Ash River, Minnesota, about 40 miles southeast of International Falls. Rendering by Holabird & Root.
A rendering of the entrance to the NOvA detector facility. Physicists will use the NOvA experiment to analyze the mysterious behavior of neutrinos sent through the Earth from Fermilab in Illinois to the NOvA detector in Ash River, Minnesota. Rendering by Holabird & Root.
Ash River near the future site of the NOvA detector facility. Photo by William Miller, NOvA installation manager.
NOvA Image Slideshow
A slideshow of images from the NOvA groundbreaking ceremony in May 2009.