Giant 43-Foot Beam Makes 4,850-Foot Descent for DUNE's Underground Neutrino Lab

Crews are lowering 10 million pounds of steel into a former South Dakota gold mine for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE). A 43-foot beam weighing about 15,890 pounds travels upright in a 4.5-foot-wide cage down the Ross Shaft 4,850 feet to form the two massive cryostats that will house 17,000 tons of liquid argon each. With more than 2,100 components needing to fit through the narrow shaft, the descent—done dozens of times this summer—is a critical, tightly choreographed step toward first neutrinos in 2031.