The National Science Foundation has awarded another $29 million to scientists who are developing a preliminary plan to turn the former Homestake Gold Mine into the world's deepest laboratory.

"Of the $29.1 million, nearly $13 million will be directed to the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology for major design contracts being managed there for the project," according to a story in the University of California Berkeley News.

The preliminary lab plan will be a major factor in the National Science Foundation's decision whether to proceed with plans for a Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) in Lead. The proposed $550 million facility would allow scientists to conduct physics, engineering, geoscience and biology experiments that can only be done below the earth's surface where thick rock shields the experiments from cosmic radiation.

When NSF chose Homestake as its preferred DUSEL site in 2007, the foundation also chose a UC Berkeley team to develop the preliminary lab design and refine the lab's goals. NSF also provided funding for lab design at that time.

Now, "NSF has put forward nearly $30 million and, in addition, provided $21 million more to explore 16 possible experiments, so they are embracing DUSEL very firmly," Kevin Lesko, a UC Berkeley adjunct professor and principal investigator for the project, was quoted as saying in the UC Berkeley News.

More than 200 potential DUSEL researchers met in Lead earlier this month to discuss scientific requirements for other research projects that could be integrated into the design proposal. A spokesman said the lab designs are very complex and involve numerous engineering studies and rock core samples, which explains why they are so costly.

The lab design will eventually be brought to the 24-member National Science Board, which will ultimately decide whether to ask Congress to fund the deep lab.

"We're supporting the preliminary design in order to enable the foundation and board to make as informed a decision as possible (on) if and how to move forward," John Kotcher, program director for the NSF physics division, told The Associated Press.

That decision will likely come in the spring of 2011, according to the AP story. If the lab is approved and funded, construction could begin in the fall of 2012.

While the NSF works on developing the deeper lab, the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority is pumping water out of the 8,000-foot-deep former Homestake gold mine and preparing interim laboratory space for experiments at the 4,850-foot level of the Sanford Underground Laboratory.

Water is now down to 5,021 feet below the surface, lab spokesman Bill Harlan said Tuesday. Cleanup is under way at the 5,000-foot level, where the last in a series of water pumping systems will soon be installed.

The South Dakota Legislature approved about $34 million in funding to reopen the lab, which was donated by Barrick Corp. Sioux Falls banker T. Denny Sanford donated $70 million for the Sanford Lab, which also received a $10 million federal grant several years ago.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com