Vulcan 10 PW building design

A key aspect of the Vulcan 10 Petawatt project is the new building that will house the large amount of new equipment required for the 10 PW laser facility. A basic conceptual design was developed during phase one of this project. This design extends the current building to maximise the available space within the limited surrounding land in RAL.

In preparation for the start of phase 2 a team consisting of CLF staff and external consultants has been working hard to develop the Vulcan 10PW building design for the past six months.

During this period the design brief has been agreed, surveys conducted, risks were reviewed, the layout was developed to incorporate operational requirements, disabled access, fire strategies etc, and the structural design and services outlined. A value engineering exercise has also been conducted to prioritise the design elements against the available budget. The 10PW management team have agreed a conceptual design for the building (see artists impression below).

The new building comprises of an extension on the South and West sides and a second floor built in above the current Target Area West (TAW) and Target Area East (TAE). This design incorporates new laser areas associated with the OPCPA front end, long pulse pump, OPCPA amplification, beam compression, beam delivery and provision for pulsed power and other services. There are three target areas namely the existing Target Area West, an enhanced Target Area Petawatt, that will become a combined 1+10 PW area, and a new High Intensity Target Area, that will replace the existing TAE, together with their associated control rooms.

The plan for the coming months is shown in the table below

For more information on the building project, please contact Brian Wyborn.