PM Modi, Biden hail India's contribution to Fermilab accelerator complex

India is supplying components worth USD 140 million to the US Department of Energy’s ambitious plans to upgrade the Fermilab accelerator complex to create the most intense high-energy neutrino beams which would help unravel understanding of the evolution of the universe.

India and the US signed an agreement in 2018 to expand collaboration for jointly advancing cutting-edge neutrino science projects such as the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF) with the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) hosted at Fermilab, and the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the deepening bilateral cooperation between the two countries on cutting-edge scientific infrastructure.

This includes a USD 140 million in-kind contribution from the Indian Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Fermi National Laboratory toward collaborative development of the Proton Improvement Plan-II (PIP-II) Accelerator, for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility — the first and largest international research facility on US soil. Biden and Modi also welcomed the commencement of construction of a Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in India, according to a joint statement issued after the bilateral talks between the two sides.

Prime Minister Modi is visiting the US from June 21-24 at the invitation of US President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. “The leaders called on their administrations to extend these partnerships to advanced biotechnology and biomanufacturing, and enhance biosafety and biosecurity innovation, practices, and norms,” the statement said. The PIP-II project includes the construction of a 600-foot-long superconducting linear accelerator at Fermilab.

It will be the first-ever particle accelerator built in the United States with significant contributions from international partners, including the United Kingdom and Italy. Scientists from four institutions Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai; Inter-University Accelerator Centre in New Delhi; Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology in Indore; and Variable Electron and Cyclotron Centre in Kolkata – are contributing to the design and construction of magnets and superconducting particle accelerator components for PIP-II at Fermilab.