Overview
The Boulby Underground Laboratory is one of just a handful of facilites world-wide suitable for housing and supporting ultra-low background and deep underground science projects. The laboratory is one of the 5 deep underground science facilities linked by ILIAS - the European initiative designed to promote and develop large scale infrastructures supporting astro-particle physics across Europe.
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 the UK Dark Matter Collaboration 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 three internationally renowned Dark Matter search experiments running underground in the Boulby Underground Laboratory. These are ZEPLIN-II, ZEPLIN-III and DRIFT-II experiments operated by the UK Dark Matter Collaboration (UKDMC) and their international collaborators. Other projects underway include detailed studies of residual natural radioactivity levels in the laboratory and development and operation of ultra-low background activity testing using high purity Germanium gamma spectrometers.
To see a map showing current occupancy of the Palmer laboratory @ Boulby please click here. For more information on the facilities available and/or the science underway please see the links on the left - or contact us.