KOLKATA: The Steel Authority of India, the country's largest steel maker, will supply 50,000 tonne of special steels for building a CERN-like underground detector for the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO).
When the project is completed, INO will house the world's largest magnet, about four times larger than the 12,500-tonne magnet housed in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
About 50,000 tonnes of soft iron plates will be required for fabricating the neutrino detector. INO is being touted as the next frontier to take particle physics beyond the standard model which led to search for the elusive 'God particle' or the Higgs boson.
For this purpose, a two km underground tunnel is being constructed in Theni between Madurai and Kochi. The expirement is likely to cost $250 million.
The project is being executed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in association with over two dozen institutes like Mumbai's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) in Kolkata.
"We will source low carbon plates from SAIL for the project," Prof. Naba Mondal of TIFR and spokesperson for the INO project said.
The project will study properties of neutrinos and use magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) as detector.
These value added special steel plates for the INO project will be tailor-made and can command a premium of over 100 per cent in the international market. For instance, if ordinary steel plates cost Rs 40,000 per tonne, these plates can be priced at Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per tonne, an official affiliated to the steel industry said.
Confirming this, Pankaj Gautam, CEO of SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant said: "It is a project of national importance and we are proud to be associated with it.
We had many rounds of discussions with the BARC and TIFR team before preparing a detailed protocol. The required chemistry of the slab was finalized and 5-6 plates (about 100 tonnes) were successfully rolled on a trial basis. We hope to soon get commercial orders for these plates."
While laboratory trials for soft iron plates were carried out at Research and Development Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS), Ranchi, Bhilai Steel Plant took up the industrial trial.
"The experiments will involve high end technology on a scale that has not been tried out earlier in India. We will develop and transfer the knowhow for the building blocks to set up what will be the first in a series of such experiments. We hope to start work in 2017. Apart from the tunnel, it will involve setting up an underground lab complex to conduct research in particle physics," said Prof. Mondal.
SAIL to supply 50,000 tonne steel for CERN-like Neutrino Observatory - The Economic Times
When the project is completed, INO will house the world's largest magnet, about four times larger than the 12,500-tonne magnet housed in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
About 50,000 tonnes of soft iron plates will be required for fabricating the neutrino detector. INO is being touted as the next frontier to take particle physics beyond the standard model which led to search for the elusive 'God particle' or the Higgs boson.
For this purpose, a two km underground tunnel is being constructed in Theni between Madurai and Kochi. The expirement is likely to cost $250 million.
The project is being executed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in association with over two dozen institutes like Mumbai's Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP) and Variable Energy Cyclotron Centre (VECC) in Kolkata.
"We will source low carbon plates from SAIL for the project," Prof. Naba Mondal of TIFR and spokesperson for the INO project said.
The project will study properties of neutrinos and use magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) as detector.
These value added special steel plates for the INO project will be tailor-made and can command a premium of over 100 per cent in the international market. For instance, if ordinary steel plates cost Rs 40,000 per tonne, these plates can be priced at Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per tonne, an official affiliated to the steel industry said.
Confirming this, Pankaj Gautam, CEO of SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant said: "It is a project of national importance and we are proud to be associated with it.
We had many rounds of discussions with the BARC and TIFR team before preparing a detailed protocol. The required chemistry of the slab was finalized and 5-6 plates (about 100 tonnes) were successfully rolled on a trial basis. We hope to soon get commercial orders for these plates."
While laboratory trials for soft iron plates were carried out at Research and Development Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS), Ranchi, Bhilai Steel Plant took up the industrial trial.
"The experiments will involve high end technology on a scale that has not been tried out earlier in India. We will develop and transfer the knowhow for the building blocks to set up what will be the first in a series of such experiments. We hope to start work in 2017. Apart from the tunnel, it will involve setting up an underground lab complex to conduct research in particle physics," said Prof. Mondal.
SAIL to supply 50,000 tonne steel for CERN-like Neutrino Observatory - The Economic Times
