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The International Germanium Experiment (IGEX) has analyzed 117 mole yr of 76 Ge data from its isotopically enriched (86% 76 Ge) germanium detectors. Applying pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) to the more recent data, the lower bound on the half-life for neutrinoless double-beta

This paper is a response to the preceding Comment by Klapdor-Kleingrothaus, Dietz, and Krivosheina. The criticisms are confronted, and the questions raised are answered. We demonstrate that the lower limit quoted by IGEX, T 0 1=2 76 Ge 1:57 10 25 yr, is correct and that there was no ''arithmetical error'' as claimed in the ''Critical View'' article.

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The IGEX Collaboration enriched 76 Ge double-beta decay detectors are currently operating in the Canfranc Underground Laboratory with an overburden of 2450 m.w.e. A recent upgrade has made it possible to use them in a search for WIMPs. A new exclusion plot, σ(m), has been derived for WIMP-nucleon spin-independent interaction. To obtain this result, 30 days of data from one IGEX detector, which has an energy threshold E thr ∼ 4 keV, have been considered. These data improve the exclusion limits derived from other germanium diode experiments in the ∼50 GeV DAMA region, and show that with a moderate improvement of the background below 10 keV, the DAMA region may be tested with an additional 1 kg-year of exposure.