Friday, March 8, 2024
11:00 - 12:00
The Euroregion Meuse-Rhine (EMR) is a candidate site for constructing
the Einstein Telescope (ET). We expect a decision on where ET will be
built sometime end 2026. To enable such a decision, a comprehensive
technical program has been developed to characterise the EMR site and
determine whether a subsurface trajectory is cost-effectively realisable
to specifications. Investigations are required to demonstrate that the
subsurface is of sufficient quality to construct at least one
trajectory, including the excavation of tunnels, caverns and access
shafts, within a specified budget. Furthermore, we need to establish
that the selected trajectory is socially, politically and
environmentally acceptable. Finally we need to show that the proposed
trajectory can be expected to have an acceptable noise budget
(gravitational disturbance) at the corner points for the instruments to
perform to sensitivity requirements. In this presentation a selection of
the current plans and activities to characterize the site are
discussed. Sub-surface measurements to establish rock quality and noise
levels are described, including drilling boreholes, seismic, electrical
resistivity and gravity measurements. In particular the drilling
campaign that started this week is described and its purpose explained.
At the end of the presentation a live video connection is made with the
current drill site at Hombourg, Belgium.
Nikhef
Nikhef
The Nikhef Colloquium room
Colloquium
astrophysics
Wim Walk (Nikhef)