Plasma Generators

The Gamma Ray Suit

The price we charge to see the power plant may seem excessive to you, but this is a lethal enviroment and you are buying the inner linings. They become your property and your souvenier. This from the guide who was directing the visitors through the new power station.

Most of the visitors were from the science establishment, with some who would disseminate their knowledge to the public. They were gathered into a locker room with cubicles and a selection of fine wool long johns and gloves to get into."The gloves and long johns are to absorb sweat as your next layer is impermeable. After those are fitted we put into the gas filled pressure unit". The guide explained that the pressure unit was woven flat tubing filled with ozone gas. The outer skin has a lead layer and with the ozone is a barrier for any gamma ray penetration, therefore you are insulated from any air cooling. We do not want the outer skin damaged, one to contain the ozone and two they are difficult to repair. So be careful, we will be connecting a heat absorbing unit to the outer layer to help keep you cool. This unit is carried on your own back and has a two hour maximum time limit, at normal physical exertion.

"The helmet has lead glass and has indicator strips inside to monitor any radiation penetration of your helmet, the strips are new and I personally fitted each and every one, so I want you to check their colour as soon as the helmet is fitted. Your air supply is also on your back and is a carbon dioxide absorber with an oxygen in feed, also with a two hour limit.

Last thing! The helmet radios are sound level set so that you will need to shout to reach me, my radio is set to normal, therefore the communication is virtually one way, me to you."

The transmission transformer yard you have seen, we are proud of the rain water storage used for cooling on high temperature, high load days, it has taken a long time for this common sense to be applied. We are now going into the generator room, this is grouped into lots of three, giving us two lots of three phase power units with the standard one twenty degree separation. The two lots gives us better load following and a redundancy for servicing. The phase following is set by an infeed from the power lines outside the plant, plus a battery group and an electronic alternating power set.

When we enter this building your helmets are to be fitted and I will check them„ then we are on radio. Sound level check! If you can hear me clearly, put your hand up, all O.K. you understand, five by five is clarity and sound level, right into the air lock. Once in this building there are high levels of ionised gas because of the radiation. This gas is pumped to the water treatment plant for sterilising water. It is a saleable product, so with modest pressurising we make a small profit.

As the air lock could take three persons at a time, the group took a while to be assembled in the foyer.

The guide then explained how the generator system operated. " The original alternators were rotating fields or rotors in a stationery field set called a stator, this stator could be any multiple of three for the three phases. They efficiently operated at twelve thousand volts, this voltage is a specific level of the sine wave. These new generators operate on a different principle, a plasma of hot metal is triggered by a very high voltage to resonate and produce a high voltage, high current output. This high voltage is the cause of the gamma radiation.

The group were now approaching the door of the first set of power units. They had another door lock to enter. This room had a flickering intense light coming from behind screens, like a huge welding plant. The guide continued," the screens are to allow our operators to feed in the input metal and monitor the system for best output. As an arc welder melts, then carries molten metal at high temperatures into a puddle of two pieces of metal thus joining them.

These units use molten metal at a high temperature so that the metal is a vapour. The vapour when kept hot enough is unstable in a high voltage enviroment and in an alternating high voltage, will resonate. This in effect becomes a high temperature transistor triggering a current flow."

The guide continued," you may have seen a carbon arc search-light, two rods of carbon are fed through tubes into a chamber; they are electrically powered so that they arc and produce an intense white light.

The carbon is consumed by the electricity and is slowly fed in to continue the arc. The light is then directed onto a large diameter reflector and becomes a search-light. The carbon is vaporised and is exhausted out of the chamber as carbon dioxide.

These units use vapourised lead in the same way as the carbon arcs, but in an evacuated glass cylinder. The two feeds of lead are vapourised using low voltage high current at the top of the cylinder. Lower down the cylinder is the outputs, two circles of metal inside with connections through the glass to the outside.

The glass cylinder is the heart of these units and has to take high temperature and still be an insulator. At the bottom the lead cools, pools and is bled out to be reused. You appreciate that the vapourising temperature of lead and molten glass are very close, so the vapour is directed into a centralised vortex. This is the trick of the units and you will not be shown how it is done.

We are now going behind one screen to show you the actual power unit. I want you to come in one at a time, backwards and I will turn you and point out the various feeds and outputs. Your helmet will automatically darken as the light comes onto the face.

The interior was just like a welding bay with an incredibly bright light, first thing to see was the high tension feed coming down from the ceiling, carried on long insulators. Next was the low voltage feeds on the floor heading towards the centre, now being turned to see the glass cylinder as a blue light with two opposing tubes feeding down to the centre top. A t the bottom barely visible a container with a grey metal unevenly spread into it.

Looking straight at the unit to see the connectors at the lower section with insulators supporting them from the floor and out to the transformer yard.

Just visible was thee blue core of illumination easily kept from the outer glass wall. The sound of the unit could be heard through the helmet, like a huge arc welder or a swarm of bees. The overall size small size was a surprise considering the power that it engendered. To be turned again ,then wait for the vision to return and walk out, for the next to go in.

The wait for every one to see first hand the alternator and then reassemble to go right through the building was a tribute to the engineers. They were happy to be outside and remove their helmets, the last thing to see was the air. Pumps that used high speed cetrifugal action to separate the ozone from the air supply.