It’s an understatement to say that Scorpius, the 400-foot-long linear accelerator being built a thousand feet underground at the Nevada National Security Site, will require a lot of electricity to operate.
To meet its significant power needs, and to provide facilities also equipped to meet the cooling requirements associated with supplying that much power to one location, the Scorpius team is constructing a Power Distribution Center (PDC) above ground near the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE) where Scorpius will be housed.
Critical pieces of the PDC arrived by convoy earlier this year to be installed as part of the surface construction portion of the U1a Capabilities Enhancement Project (UCEP) that is providing all utilities necessary to operate Scorpius’ new test bed.
“The PDC is a key milestone in bringing Scorpius to life,” said Zack Buchanan, PULSE’s acting facility manager. “Essentially, it reroutes utility electrical power from our Site power transmission system to the underground capacitators that drive the accelerator.”
Once fully constructed and fully powered, the Scorpius accelerator will be used by national weapons laboratories and other national security partners to help certify our nation’s nuclear stockpile, ensuring that our nuclear deterrent is operational, reliable, and safe.
View this video and watch as parts of the PDC arrive and are installed, and learn more about how Scorpius and the PDC function.