University of Minnesota regents meet on mine lease
The University of Minnesota Board of Regents meets Wednesday before going on a two-day retreat at the end of the week.
Before they go, they are scheduled to discuss several issues, including a new five-year lease for the Soudan Underground Laboratory in an old mine in northern Minnesota.
The university started leasing space there in 1980 for physics experiments and the new lease is for space about 2,500-feet below ground and some buildings on the surface.
The Soudan laboratory now hosts two large experiments, one into subatomic particles called neutrinos and another into "dark matter" which may explain how galaxies are formed.
The first year's rent to the state Department of Natural Resources is estimated at $228,000.
The regents' annual retreat will be Thursday and Friday at Gainey Conference Center in Owatonna.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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