Model for
Sharing Facilities
Bill Miller-U of M
Lab Manager
Infrastructure Issues
• Surface Building and Staging Requirements• Joint facilities
– Lunchroom– Sanitary needs– Conference room– Fresh Air and Cooling System– Outreach
• Life safety• Working within a State Park
Surface Building
Surface Staging Area
• Important to have surface staging area– Shipping and Receiving
• UPS, FedEx, large trucks
– Stage materials for shipment underground– Overhead crane and forklifts for moving
materials
• Good organization of materials and hoist trips saves money!
• Surface office space
Staging Underground
• Building large detectors require
• Almost as much staging area needed as detector area-DON’T SKIMP ON OPEN AREA’S
• Organized materials handling systems save time and money!
Joint Facilities
• Make lunchroom facilities NICE.
• Happy workers are productive workers
• Very useful to have large enough facility so multiple disciplines have place to mingle!
Joint Facilities
• Plan for an underground sanitary and potable water systems – Running hot/cold water important– Real lavatory nice, but porta-potties work
• Conference Rooms– Important to have good areas for phone/video
conferences– Need several sized rooms, at least one large
enough for expected underground occupancy
Fresh Air and Cooling System
• Estimate occupancy, heat loads, fresh air needs carefully
• Much cheaper to design systems with proper capacity right away
• Redundant and backup systems important, many experiments can’t survive long without power or cooling
• Fresh air to lower radon levels
Outreach and Education• Plan outreach program
from the beginning• Public access to deep
underground labs is possible if safe areas are designed in from the start
• Surface facility should have educational space for both the scientist to meet as well as the general public and school groups
Life Safety
• Underground Rescue Chambers
• Mine Rescue Team– SCBA
• Training, Training, Training!• High level of first aid training
– Times to get full medical care can be large
• Joint safety meetings• Pro-Active on Safety!
Working with others
• The Soudan Lab has been working for 25 years within a State Park– Pluses
• Joint Mine Rescue Team, safety program, cost sharing of safety equipment
• Share of surface and underground equipment-Forklifts, shop equipment, building materials
• Joint Ventures like Visitor Center, Outreach• Cost sharing internet and phone systems
– Minuses• Less control!