1 South Parade, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, DN1 2DY, UK Tel: +44 (0) Fax: +44 (0) LAGUNA PROJECT Paris Meeting – March 2012 Update on Work Package WP2 John Elliott Managing Director Alan Auld Engineering Ltd Chris Thompson Managing Director Alan Auld Commercial Ltd

WP2 Actions from the last meeting held in Geneva Oct 2011 Following the last meeting held in Geneva it was decided by the board to prepare baseline designs, cost plan and schedule for the 100kt argon tank based on the Pyhäsälmi site in Finland. In addition once these are complete the exercise will be repeated for the 20 and 50kt options using the 100kt work to inform the new options. These would form an incremental approach to the project to assist funding prospects. Once the argon tank work has reached a convenient point for review a similar exercise would be carried out for the LENA tank. It was proposed that the LENA work would start in detail after the Argon tank work had concluded for this phase.

Focus of the WP2 industrial partners since the last Geneva Meeting The Alan Auld and Technodyne teams then met to discuss the current design and understand the potential issues that would likely affect construction underground at Pyhäsälmi. These discussion then led to a visit to the proposed site at Pyhäsälmi in January 2012 to review the site facilities, with others from the project. parties. Following this visit and in parallel with the AAG work Technodyne has continued work on outline designs for the 100kt tank, taking into account recent information and thoughts on tank roof design and construction. Following the mine visit a further meeting was convened in early February 2012 between AAG, Technodyne and Rhyal Engineering to discuss tank construction issues associated with the mine site. Note Rhyal Engineering are not familiar with underground construction so this meeting was particularly useful for all the industrial partners.

Conclusions from the Site Visit to Pyhäsälmi: The Alan Auld team were very impressed with the facilities in Finland and have concluded that it is ideal as a site for building the facility. John Elliott of Alan Auld has visited well over thirty mines of different types during the last 30 years and whilst there are other mines with comparable facilities this location is considered by the Alan Auld team to be one of the best in terms of its set up and general arrangement of underground facilities. Once the mine closes it can easily be converted to a science facility with minimal legacy problems (unlike some other sites around the world). In addition due to its potential timely availability as a result of planned mine closure it is perhaps the most ideal candidate for the construction of the facility.

Positive Aspects of the Site The mine is accessed via a dedicated lift housed within the Timo shaft for personnel. Note the lift shaft is not suitable for heavy materials due to the restricted access at surface. It was designed as a personnel lift and as such to convert it would be difficult, but not impossible. However it is not considered necessary. Materials for the construction would be taken underground via the ramp access. Whilst this is a steeply grade ramp typical of metal mines it can be used by vehicles from the surface and is at present used on this basis. A standard rigid chassis road lorry was at the main mine level on the day of the visit and had travelled to site and down into the mine to deliver materials. The ramp can be traversed one way in less than one hour. A review of the facilities has led AAG to conclude that with careful planning the underground site will have minimum impact on the construction programme.

Logistics of Tank Construction 1 Following detailed discussions on this subject the following process is currently envisaged: 1) Steel plates and other materials will be delivered to the surface mine yard. 2) A large laydown area to be established together with undercover preparation area for preparing steel. 3) Craneage to be provided in yard for loading/ unloading – gantry? 4) Steel to be delivered to this yard by articulated lorry and trailer, or by rail depending on origin of steel. 5) Steel and other materials to be delivered underground by rigid flat back lorry. Dedicated fleet would be required as each lorry would be able to make no more than 3 trips per day (assuming trip to low level). 6) If the upper site used for the 100kt tank then the trip would be shorter, possibly 4-5 trips per day. 7) A small dedicated fleet of rigid trucks would be necessary for this operation, to be quantified.

Logistics of Tank Construction2 7) Generally it is planned to transport steel plates direct to the erection point/unloading area adjacent to the main chamber direct from the surface. 8) There is also opportunity to store steel underground in an ancillary chamber adjacent to the main chamber. This facility would not be required to hold large numbers of plates, simply a buffer to avoid transport holdups. 9) It is proposed to construct a large cross section ante chamber at the tank level (similar in size to the workshops currently sited underground) 10) This chamber will be fitted with a travelling gantry crane, which can lift plates from the rear of the truck and transport them into the chamber for erection. 11) Once into the tank chamber a second gantry crane fitted to the cavern roof will then lift the plates into position. (Similar set up to Super K is envisaged ). 12) The space frame roof structure will be built first and then air lifted to its required position. 13) The ramp would possibly require some additional work, (grading and widening of passing bays).

Work Package 2 – Progress During this period the Alan Auld Group and other partners have been working on the following items: Risk Register Preparation of a project Risk Register. This document is in its early stages and it is planned to circulate it to all parties for input. We have attempted to populate the document as a starting point, with risks as we see them. However the other partners in the project will be invited to add to the register. The Risk Register will always be a live document through the design, planning and construction stages of the project. Following the identification of the project risks attempts will be made to design them out and if this cannot be done the monetary value of the risk will be quantified and contingencies made in the project budget. Any potential show stoppers must be designed out at an early stage.

Work package 2 Progress -Continued Design Technodyne has now prepared a set of updated outline designs and materials take-offs which address the 100kt argon tank based on current knowledge. There have been some changes made since the original study and the impact of these is still under review. Technodyne have also started work on the other smaller tanks. These have not been commercially evaluated yet, but will form part of the next phase of our work following the Paris meeting.

Work package 2 Progress -Continued Cost and Scheduling Following the updating of the Technodyne design Rhyal Engineering has taken the new design information and produced a detailed erection schedule and cost for the construction of the tank in isolation. In preparing this schedule and cost breakdown Rhyal have been instructed to assume that the location of the underground construction site will not affect the construction process significantly. In reality it is likely to improve the programme as the effects of weather (usually a problem for tank construction) will not have an effect. This decision regarding the effects of underground construction was reached by the Alan Auld team having reviewed the infrastructure at Pyhäsälmi. The underground environment is constant and ambient and once the mine is closed it will be dedicated to the construction of the facility.

Work package 2 Progress -Continued Master Cost Plan and Schedule AAG has prepared a cost plan for the 100kt tank which takes the Rhyal baseline work and adds front end and back end activites not allowed for in the Rhyal work. In time this cost plan will also greater detail to include the other associated operations including the process engineering for liquid handling and the follow on operations leading to handover. The cost plan is a live document and will evolve through the project. In addition AAG has also prepared a master schedule for the project. This document takes the Rhyal construction schedule and adds additional activities for the enabling works and excavation as well as making allowances for the manufacture and delivery of process plant, filling and commissioning. This document is also a live document, however as further detail is added it will ultimately form the project master schedule.

Work package 2 Progress - Continued Concerns 1) Detector Technodyne has identified that the design and construction of the detector to be housed within the argon tank is an area of concern at present. Whilst there is a design concept in place it is still very much at the laboratory scale and the full size structure has a great deal of design work to be done before we can be sure of its impact on tank design and construction. The tank design has to incorporate this structure and the construction and commissioning of the detector and its support equipment needs to be better understood. 2) Cleansing The cleansing of the tank and the clean room environment of the chambers needs further work to understand its impact on cost and schedule.

Work package 2 Next Phase of Work It is considered that we now have an understanding of the tank construction in the mine environment. The next phase of work will be to understand the process engineering in terms of design, layout and installation requirements as well as cost, installation and commissioning. This information will then be added to the schedule and cost plan and these documents further refined. We see the next period concentrating on Sofregas and reviewing their needs and requirements. Following this we consider that Rockplan should be able to finalize a layout for the underground chambers necessary to house these facilities. In parallel with this work the teams will also prepare similar documents for the smaller 20kt and 50kt argon tanks, as well as developing the LENA concept in a similar manner.