MRP provides shielding material to support the search for neutrinos

MRP Systems has recently supplied a block wall enclosure to the ANR funded Project SoLid, which is undertaking a Search of Oscillations at very short distance with Lithium6 Detector at SCK-CEN BR2, in Belgium.

The project, which is funded by the French Research Agency ANR, is undertaking a search for one of the most enigmatic ingredients of the standard model of particle physics, the neutrino.

This project is an international collaboration between eleven laboratories, including Bristol University; Oxford University; University of Gent; Imperial College of London; Vrije Universiteit Brussels; LAL Laboratoire de l’Accélérateur Linéaire; LPC CAEN; SUBATECH; Antwerp University; SCK-CEN and Virginia Tech, involving over fifty physicists.

The SoLid project is an unique opportunity for the community to obtain sufficiently large and accurate data of neutrino flux at very short distance from a nuclear reactor, and then provide a reference measurement of pure 235U, essential for neutrino flux predictions used in current and future neutrino measurements.

What makes the SoLid proposal distinctive is the antineutrino source, the technology of detection and the shielding material, all of which have been brought together to establish a unique experiment, which will take place at the BR2 research reactor of SCK-CEN (in Mol, Belgium).

SoLid allows oscillation measurements at distance varying from 5.5 to 12 m from the core. In addition to this large range, the site is distinguished by its exceptionally low background environment and by having no-access to site constraint.

The physics run, with the full detector, will begin shortly and run for a duration of two years minimum.