Wednesday University of Minnesota regents will get an update on on–going construction of a new physics lab on the Iron Range.

Range reporter Boua Xiong got a preview of the project.

It takes a three minute ride down an old mine shaft to find Bill Miller.
He works here, nearly 2,300 feet underground at the Soudan Underground laboratory.

He says he's been working some long hours recently.

That's because he is not only running this lab, he is also managing the installation of Nova, a new lab near Ash River.

"The Nova project is a continuation of the study of neutrinos just like the MINOS project here at the Soudan lab. But here we're looking for the disappearance of the electron neutrino. So, we're studying what we don't see. Where the detector at Ash River is designed specifically to see the electron neutrinos that we're missing at the detector here."

For those us of who aren't science experts, the new lab will study tiny particles called neutrinos.

Not much is known about them because they are so small and pass right through the spaces of ordinary matter.–That's where the lab comes in.

"This trains phd's working for their doctorates in physics and they'll work on experiments and things like that. But it's just, the goal of very very basic understanding of how the universe is put together, what everything is made of."

Bill says phase one, the civil construction of the new underground lab, is almost complete.

When everything is done, eight of these detectors will help scientists from the University of Minnesota and around the world understand a little more about neutrinos.

The Nova project broke ground in May and is expected to be finished by 2014.

And if you are wondering why the lab is underground, scientists say it's because underground labs help keep out cosmic rays that could effect study results.