Astroparticle and Nuclear Physics with a Customized Low-Background Broad Energy Germanium Detector

As a part of the R\&D process for the M\textsc{ajorana} and CoGeNT experiments, we have found that customized commercial Broad Energy Ge detectors (BEGe) produced by Canberra have several promising features, including large mass, low electronic noise, and excellent pulse-shape analysis capabilities. BEGe detectors obtain these capabilities due to their low-capacitance ``point-contact" style configuration. BEGes are also the only point-contact design fabricated on a commercial basis. We have deployed a customized BEGe, named ``MALBEK" in a low background cryostat in the Kimballton Underground Research Facility in Virginia. This talk will focus on the shield design, detector characteristics, and measurements that can be performed with such a detector in a low-background environment.