The Sanford Underground Research Facility has approved a five million dollar line of credit. The money would keep operations at the lab running during a government shutdown.
Mike Headley is the Executive Director with the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority- that’s the group that manages the Sanford Underground Research Facility, or SURF.
Daily lab activities like getting researchers underground, and maintaining or operating machines are funded by the Department of Energy. Headly says this line of credit could keep operations running for two to three months in case of a Government shutdown.
“All the various things we do to operate SURF so that Science can happen, those are the types of things that are underneath this new SURF operations cooperative agreement with DOE. So this line of credit is not really intended to fund experiment activities but for us to be able to safely operate the facility in support of science.”
Headly says that money would be reimbursed to the bank after the shutdown ended and they received federal payment. He says the partial shutdown about a year ago didn’t affect the lab.
“That was something that’s been in work for a bit. It isn’t a new idea just because it’s kind of being discussed at the federal level that there might be a shutdown. But it’s just something we’ve wanted in place since we started this new five year agreement with the Department of Energy.”
Headley says most scientists are paid through universities teaming with SURF and their pay wouldn't be affected by a shutdown.