DOE Mission Need Statements

From: Mike Shaevitz (shaevitz@nevis.columbia.edu)
Date: Tue Dec 13 2005 - 09:16:54 CST


Dear Braidwood,

The DOE has put out "Mission Need" (CD0) statements for several
programs (see below). A web page has been set up at:
http://www.science.doe.gov/hep/newinitiatives.shtm

I have also attached the CD0's for the long-baseline, reactor, and
dark energy experiments.

Mike

Status of New Initiatives in High Energy Physics

The Office of High Energy Physics is developing several new
initiatives to build new scientific facilities or experiments. The
first step in the DOE process for approving such projects is to
approve the mission need. Recently, four mission need statements were
approved by Raymond L. Orbach, Director of the DOE Office of Science.
Summaries of these mission need statements are listed below.

     * A generic accelerator-based electron neutrino appearance
experiment to measure neutrino mixing and to probe the neutrino mass
hierarchy, summary

     * A generic reactor-based neutrino detector to precisely measure
neutrino mixing, summary

     * A generic ground-based dark energy experiment, summary

     * A generic neutrinoless double beta decay experiment to probe
the Majorana nature and an absolute mass scale of neutrinos

Note that an approval of Mission Need (commonly referred as CD-0
approval) does not equate to an approval to proceed with the project,
although it is a required step in the approval process for any new
major facility or experiment. Rather, It is an expression the Office
of High Energy Physics's intention to to pursue these specific
scientific topics and/or facility options.

The potential projects may be located in the U.S. or in other
countries; and there may be several options for the technology chosen
to carry out the experiment or to build the facility. If these
initiatives move forward, decisions such as technology choice and
siting will come later in the approval process. The DOE’s project
approval process has been moving in parallel with scientific advisory
processes (SAG, P5, HEPAP etc) in order to be ready to move forward
expeditiously. The recommendations from the scientific advisory
processes will be one of key inputs in next steps to come.

The request for the approvals of the following two potential new
medium scale initiatives will shortly follow:

     *

       A high-intensity neutrino beam (Super Neutrino Beam) for
neutrino CP-violation experiments; and
     *

       A generic underground dark matter experiment to search for
direct evidence of dark matter







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