Inside the DUNE Factory: Building the Technology to Detect Neutrinos
10 Aug 2026
Our team at the DUNE Factory in Daresbury Laboratory are playing a key role in the development of the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a major international science project currently under construction in the US. The DUNE Factory has been pivotal to the project's development, as the bespoke facility manufactures essential components for its detectors.
The team working at the DUNE Factory.
DUNE will study neutrinos – tiny fundamental particles that could help answer some of the biggest questions in physics, including why matter exists in the Universe. By firing them from Fermilab in Illinois to the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, scientists hope to study their properties by seeing how they change across the 1300km journey. However, neutrinos are famously difficult to detect: trillions pass through our bodies every second, without any effect.
This is why anode plane assemblies (APAs) are a key component of the experiment, as they act like giant 3D cameras for neutrinos, even though we can’t detect them directly. When neutrinos enter the detectors, they interact with the materials inside, producing other signals that can be detected by the APAs. Working backwards from these detections, the position, direction and behaviour of the neutrinos can be reconstructed, building up a picture for scientists to study.
Overall, 150 APAs are needed for the detectors, and around 90% of them are being manufactured at a bespoke facility in Daresbury Laboratory: the DUNE Factory. Each APA consists of a frame measuring 6.3m by 2.3m (that’s the same height as a two-storey house!). Onto each one, 24km of ultra-thin copper-beryllium wire is wound. Specialist machines do the winding, but each APA must be finished by hand with around 13,000 hand-soldered points, an incredible feat for a relatively small team.
Mitchell Kane (seen with the forklift) is one of the many experts helping to make DUNE possible, managing the transport of delicate APAs using a custom anti-shock frame so they reach the US undamaged. This is vital because the tension in the wires needs to be carefully maintained to prevent them from snapping when they are installed in the detectors. That is why impressive equipment, like the massive forklifts seen here, are essential for moving them safely.
Using a crane to lift an APA into a lorry for safe transport.
The DUNE production project is already ahead of schedule, with 64 APAs built so far. The team is currently completing around three APAs a month, with all 137 due to be delivered by April 2029.
This article was originally shared on our LinkedIn.
