PUFFIN construction continues apace
We’ve made huge progress over the past month with the construction of PUFFIN. All of the most complex parts, such as the transmission lines and capacitor modules are now in place, thanks to the hard work of the skilled technicians and machinists as the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at MIT.
Our next steps to close all of the remaining holes in the system so we can pull vacuum and check for leaks. After that, we need to get our safety systems up and running so we can start doing charge tests before moving onto short circuits loads, and eventually making plasma!
The power junction and transmission lines are attached to the PUFFIN base plate and flown into position using the 10 ton bridge crane.
Thick steel plates are clamped to the capacitor modules, ready to be bolted to the transmission lines.
Looking down onto the tapering conical transmission line, which focuses the electrical energy of PUFFIN inside the vacuum chamber.
Installing feed-throughs for electrical diagnostics to monitor the current and voltage inside the transmission lines.
The vacuum chamber with its 16 windows and blank flanges being installed, ready to go on top of PUFFIN.
The current state of PUFFIN, as of this afternoon. Still to go - cryo pump and vacuum chamber installation.