Uranium mine will house a physics lab

JAMSHEDPUR: A research and development facility will be inaugurated inside the deepest uranium mine of the Uranium Corporation of India limited (UCIL) at Jadugoda on September 2, a senior UCIL official said.

The new physics laboratory in a uranium mine will be the first of its kind in the country after a similar facility at Bharat Gold Mine at Kolar in Karnataka closed down in 1992, AK Sarangi, general manager (corporate planning), UCIL said on Monday.

The UCIL and Saha institute of nuclear physics (SINP), Kolkata have set up the laboratory for experiments in fundamental physics involving rare event searches like dark matter search, neutrinoless double beta decay, he said. Sekhar Basu, chairman, atomic energy commission and secretary, department of atomic energy, will inaugurate the facility set up at a depth of 555 metres.

Sarangi said, in the first phase, the infrastructure available at a depth of 555 metre in the mine was found to be suitable for construction of a small to medium size laboratory. The present depth of Jaduguda mine is now 905 metre. It is the second deepest operating underground mine in the country after Hutti gold mine which is more than 1000 metres deep.

Referring to activities of UCIL in Jharkhand, Sarangi said, the public sector unit has seven mines including six underground mines. These mines are Jaduguda, Bhatin, Narwapahar, Bagjata, Turamdih and Mahuldih and Banduhurang (open pit mine). The UCIL operates two ore processing plants one each at Jadugude and Turamdih.

While the mining activity at Jaduguda and Bhatin mine has been stalled since September 2014 due to mining lease and forest land renewal issues, other mines are working satisfactorily, he said.