Overview
The Boulby Underground Laboratory, a Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funded science facility, is one of just a handful of facilites world-wide suitable for hosting ultra-low background and deep underground science projects. Boulby is a special place for science - 'a Quiet Place in the Universe' - where studies can be carried out almost entirely free of interference from background radiation.
The Boulby laboratory is located at Boulby Mine, between Saltburn and Whitby on the North-East coast of England and on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors (click for map). Boulby is a working potash and rock-salt mine operated by Cleveland Potash Ltd. At 1100m deep, it is the deepest mine in Great Britain.
There is a huge network of roadways and caverns underground at Boulby with over 1000kms of tunnel having been excavated since beginning of mining operations in 1968. The salt and potash seams are left over from the evaporation of an ancient sea (the Zechstein Sea) over 200m years ago. The main roadways and long-lasting caverns are cut into the rock-salt layer. Within the salt caverns UK scientists and engineers have built a series of laboratories. With over 1100m of rock overhead reducing cosmic rays by a factor 1 million - and with the surrounding rock salt being low in natural background radioactivity - the laboratories make an ideal site for ultra-low background and deep underground science projects.
The support facilities at Boulby include a dedicated surface building with staging / storage, workshop, health & safety, mess and office facilities. Underground there is over 1000m2 of laboratory floor space spread over 2 areas. The most recent area (the Palmer laboratory) has >750 m2 of class 10,000 (or better) clean-room floor space, with air conditioning / filtration, power, craning facilties, telephone and internet access, workshop & storage facilities etc. Addition essential support facilities are provided by the mine operators Cleveland Potash Ltd.
There are currently two internationally important Dark Matter search experiments running at Boulby. These are ZEPLIN-III and DRIFT-II - operated by a selection of UK Universities and international collaborators. Other projects underway include SKY-ZERO, a Danish / UK study of the effect of cosmic rays on aerosols growth and cloud formation, and the development of ultra-low background activity testing using high purity Germanium gamma spectrometers for rare-event physics and studies of the environment.
For more information go to current studies.