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New Low-Background Laboratory in the Pyhäsalmi Mine, Finland

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Abstract

A new low-background laboratory has been constructed in the Pyhäsalmi mine in central Finland and was commissioned in the beginning of 2017. The underground experimental hall is located at a depth of 1436 m corresponding to about 4100 m of water equivalent (m.w.e.). We describe the equipment of the laboratory and the backgrounds arising from the natural rock radioactivity and the flux of cosmic ray muons at the experimental hall location. The high-sensitivity experiments operating at the low-background laboratory are briefly described.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research under grant no. 16-52-53120. We thank V.Ch. Lubsandorzhieva for carefully reading the manuscript and for many valuable comments and discussions.

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Correspondence to B. K. Lubsandorzhiev.

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Translated by A. Asratyan

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Bezrukov, L.B., Virkajävi, A., Enqvist, T. et al. New Low-Background Laboratory in the Pyhäsalmi Mine, Finland. Phys. Part. Nuclei 49, 769–773 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063779618040147

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