A US experiment to search for neutrinoless double-beta decay has got the green light to start operations. The Majorana Demonstrator, located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, received "Critical Decision 4" from the Department of Energy (DOE) in March. The decision certifies that the experiment met its "performance parameters", including the need for ultra-low background measurements.
"The DOE held us to the line and made sure we built something that we can use to do good science," says Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory physicist Alan Poon, the Majorana Demonstrator's detector group leader. "Because we know we have met all these basic requirements, now we start doing physics and trying to improve on the instruments and try to discover new signs."
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