DATE2025.08.05 #News

Excavation of the Colossal Cavern for Hyper-Kamiokande Completed

Outline of Hyper-Kamiokande

The excavation of the colossal underground cavern that will house the main detector of Hyper-Kamiokande, a next-generation, ultra-large water Cherenkov detector, has been completed. The next phases will involve constructing the water tank, assembling the detector structure, installing photodetectors and other components, and finally filling the tank with ultrapure water. The Hyper-K detector is scheduled to begin operations in 2028.

Hyper-Kamiokande aims to unravel the mysteries of the evolution of the universe and to test grand unified theories of particle physics through precise measurements of neutrino properties and searches for proton decay. From the Graduate School of Science, Professor Masashi Yokoyama, Associate Professor Yasuhiro Nakajima, and Assistant Professor Kota Nakagiri are participating in the international collaboration.

For more information, please visit The Kamioka Observatory, ICRR, The University of Tokyo website.

The main Hyper-Kamiokande cavern after excavation completed