Fellows' Visit

15 July 2008

With the kind permission of Graham Clarke, General Manager of Cleveland Potash, a visit has been arranged to Boulby Mine. The mine hosts a world-class underground laboratory for particle physics research. The laboratory operation is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) with participation by various university groups.

Boulby potash mine is one of Europe's deepest where depths of 1100m are encountered. It is a fully operational site and the environment underground is a harsh one. Temperatures of 36°C are common.

There will be some constraints. Visitors will have to be reasonably fit. There is no upper age limit; acceptability depends on declared fitness or, if the visitor is over 65, on the results of an interview and simple medical for blood pressure at the mine. Secondly, space in the underground lab is limited and the maximum at any one time is 8. However, there is an interesting surface laboratory so it would be feasible to divide a party in two, alternating the two groups between surface and underground. This would give a maximum of 16. The underground visit which will take about 2 hours will be confined to the laboratory which is close to the pit bottom.

The visit will commence at 10.30 and finish at 15.30-16.00. The mine is situated on the coast between Whitby and Redcar and is easily accessible - about 2 1/2 hours from Sheffield as a guide - though visitors from a distance might prefer to enjoy the pleasures of Whitby overnight.

As numbers are limited, please let me know as soon as possible whether you would like to take part.

John Bramley
Email: john...@...com