Budget squeezes neutrinos

It’s back to the drawing board for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE). In March the Department of Energy made clear that under current budget constraints it can’t pony up $1.5 billion for Fermilab’s future flagship project.

The LBNE would shoot intense beams of neutrinos from Fermilab to a detector deep in South Dakota’s Homestake gold mine. By observing changes in neutrino flavor occurring during the nearly 1300-km journey, scientists want to look for CP violation and hope to gain insight into the universe’s disparity between matter and antimatter (see page 13 of this issue ).

On 19 March William Brinkman, director of DOE’s Office of Science, wrote to Fermilab director Pier Oddone asking that the lab “lead the development of an affordable and phased approach that will enable important science results at each phase. Alternative configurations to LBNE should also be considered.”

“Ideally we will preserve the opportunity to do the full-scope experiment in phases,” says Oddone. “But it remains to be seen what we can stitch together.” Although a cost cap “has not yet been discussed,” Oddone says he’s aiming to reduce the tab by half or more for the first phase of the project. “We should have a new path forward in June,” he says.