Hyper-Kamiokande, a large underground water real-time detector for neutrinos, is likely to be built in South Korea sometime in 2025 after it was proposed by Korean scientists seeking a breakthrough in the country’s basic science.

Neutrino is an almost zero-mass subatomic particle produced in nuclear fusion that can travel through the sun and escape to space without interacting with any particles in the sun. This is one of the most actively explored fundamental particles that make up the universe by worldwide scientists these days.

Japan’s Hyper-Kamiokande international joint research group recently okayed the proposal to build the third underwater detector for neutrinos in South Korea and began a construction project with a working-level group, according to sources on Sunday.

Seoul National University (SNU) professor Kim Soo-bong and other Korean scientists who are member of Hyper-Kamiokande international joint research group first recommended the construction of the detector in Korea in hopes that the presence of the Hyber-Kamiokande would pave the way for Korea to play a critical role in exploring neutrinos and help the country to make a leap forward in Physics.

The Korean representatives led by Dr. Seo Seon-Hee, professor at Department of Physics & Astronomy, SNU will prepare for testing the project’s viability after the Japanese government will pass the construction project in August.

Two Japanese researchers won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their landmark findings associated with neutrinos in 2002 and 2015, respectively, after research using the detector already built in Japan.

The Kamiokande detector consists of a megaton scale water tank and very expensive ultra-high sensitivity photosensors.

Hyper-Kamiokande in Japan studies a beam of neutrinos produced at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex in Tsukuba, Ibaraki about 250km away from Kamioka, Gifu. It would be able to more effectively detect neutrinos produced even farther away like in Korea.

By Won Ho-sup

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