Construction Begins on DUNE, the Giant Neutrino Experiment With UK-Built Detectors at Its Heart

Almost a mile below the hills of South Dakota, workers are bolting together rows of red steel beams in caverns carved from solid rock. These beams will form two of the largest refrigerated tanks ever built, and inside, wire panels made in Britain will be installed. This marks the start of construction on the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, or DUNE.^[1][2]

Neutrinos are some of the most common particles in the universe, but they are also some of the hardest to detect. Trillions pass through your body every second, yet almost none interact with anything. DUNE aims to catch a few of these elusive particles to help answer some of physics’ biggest questions. More than 1,500 researchers from around the world are involved, and the UK is the largest international partner.^[3]

Building the neutrino experiment underground

Teams from Fermilab, CERN, and the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) are putting together large steel beams to build the outer structure of the detectors.^[4] Some of the 2,600 steel beams for the cryostats - giant insulated tanks - have already been moved underground.^[5] Each cryostat is 65.8 meters long, 18.9 meters wide, and 18.3 meters high, and will hold about 17,000 tons of liquid argon kept at around minus 300°F (about minus 184°C).^[6][7] The caverns are 4,850 feet, or 1,478 meters, below ground, where the rock protects the detectors from cosmic rays that hit the surface.^[8]

Neutrinos will be produced at Fermilab near Chicago and sent 1,300 kilometers through the Earth to the detectors in South Dakota.^[9] There is no need for a tunnel because neutrinos travel through rock as if it is not there. This experiment is also the first time CERN has made such major contributions to a project outside Europe.^[10]

The UK’s wire detectors

The UK’s role is led by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), bringing together 15 UK universities and two STFC national laboratories: Daresbury Laboratory and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.^[11][12] In 2017, the UK committed £79 million to DUNE and its supporting infrastructure.^[13]

One of the UK’s main tasks is building 137 out of 150 Anode Plane Assemblies, or APAs.^[14] Each APA is about 6.3 meters tall and 2.3 meters wide - roughly as tall as a two-story building - and holds about 24 kilometers of thin wire that detects the tiny electrical signals left when a neutrino hits the argon.^[15][16] By October 2026, the team had finished half of the 137 APAs.^[17]

Professor Gary Barker from the University of Warwick, who leads DUNE-UK, said: “We are well advanced to completing our production runs and this milestone is a key step towards our goal”^[18] of getting the detectors underground and collecting data. Professor Dave Newbold of STFC summed it up: “The DUNE experiment has the potential to change our understanding of the universe.”^[19]

You can read the full announcements from UKRI, STFC, and Fermilab. We first covered this plan in 2017 in our article, Meet the 1,300km-long underground science experiment.

What happens next

The underground space is expected to be finished by 2029, and the detectors by 2030.^[20] The neutrino beam should reach South Dakota by 2031.^[21] The experiment will run into the late 2040s.^[22] Before that, engineers need to fill the tanks, keep 17,000 tons of argon pure and cold, and make sure every wire works deep underground.

What this means for you

DUNE relies on electronic engineers who design the detector readout, mechanical engineers and technicians who build the APAs and carefully string kilometers of wire, and software engineers who turn electrical signals into images of particle collisions.

Our guide to studying and working in electronic engineering can help you get started, and our guide to studying A-level Physics for engineering explains how the physics in this story can lead to a career.

National labs like Daresbury and Rutherford Appleton also train engineers through apprenticeships, and our beginner’s guide to finding an engineering apprenticeship explains how to search for one.