  Recently, neutrino oscillation experiments have unequivocally demonstrated
that neutrinos have mass and mix. These experiments have yielded valuable
information on the mixing angles and on the mass differences of the three
eigenstates but cannot determine the scale of the neutrino mass, which is fixed
by the lightest neutrino mass eigenvalue. This can only be directly determined
by kinematic measurementsor by the observation and measurement of the
neutrinoless double-beta decay (NDBD) half-life. The CUORE experiment is
designed with a sensitivity capable of probing the range indicated by
oscillation experiments. It consists of an array of 988, 750 g, TeO2 bolometers
operating at 8 to 10 mK and arranged in a cylindrical geometry of 19 towers
hanging on the bottom of the mixing chamber of a dilution refrigerator. Each
tower consists of 13 4-detector modules for a total of 52 bolometers. One such
tower has been successfully constructed and is now operated in the Gran Sasso
Laboratory as a test experiment, and also as an independent NDBD experiment
called CUORICINO. In fact, the 3 year half-life sensitivity of CUORICINO for
NDBD decay of 130Te is 6.1E24 years. Thus far the CUORICINO data demonstrate
the technical feasibility of the expanded CUORE array while showing what and
where the sources of background are and how to reduce them. A background
reduction to 0.01 counts/keV/kg/y in the NDBD energy region is therefore
possible. This would allow the full CUORE array to achieve a 5-year sensitivity
of the order of 30 meV on the effective neutrino mass. Another order of
magnitude reduction (corresponding to a sensitivity of about 15 meV) will
present a real challenge, but is also possible. The CUORE experiment will be
installed in the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) in Assergi, Italy.
