Pure-water detector marks distant reactor neutrinos, hinting at cheaper monitoring
During a 2018 calibration, the SNO+ detector buried deep underground in Ontario used ultrapure water to detect inverse beta decay from antineutrinos emitted by a nuclear reactor over 240 kilometers away, with 99.7% confidence that the signal was reactor-related. The finding shows that plain water can be used to monitor distant reactors via antineutrinos and opens the door to cheaper, safer neutrino-detection methods, while contributing to fundamental neutrino physics.
