63-foot rotor back at Los Alamos for MagLab's pulsed-power generator
The nearly 227-ton rotor, forged in Japan and finished in Switzerland, was delivered to the Pulsed Field Facility; the generator is to be recommissioned in 2027.
LOS ALAMOS — A 63-foot-long, nearly 227-ton rotor for the generator that powers Los Alamos National Laboratory's Pulsed Field Facility, commonly called the MagLab, has returned to the Lab after a seven-year journey, the Lab announced Nov. 10.
The rotor, forged in Japan and finished in Switzerland by General Electric, was trucked from the port of Houston and moved by a remote-controlled machine into the MagLab's generator housing, according to the release. The bearings will be reassembled around it over the next several months.
The MagLab is one of three sites of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. When the generator is recommissioned in 2027, it will deliver pulses of up to 560 megawatts, which the Lab compares to powering half a million homes. That will bring back the facility's multi-shot 100-tesla magnet, which was used to set the world record for the highest non-destructive magnetic field, 100.75 tesla, and a 60-tesla controlled-waveform magnet.
Pat Fitch, deputy Laboratory director for Science, Technology and Engineering, called the rotor's return “a milestone for the Laboratory.” After reassembly, the team will test and calibrate the machine.
An Oct. 16 Lab traffic notice had scheduled its arrival at the Lab for Sunday, Oct. 18.