A look at construction taking place on the west end of the Computational Sciences building at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in January 2016. A new duct bank and electrical conduit are being installed to support the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s Summit supercomputer, set to arrive in late 2017.
Facility enhancements to accommodate Summit, the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility’s (OLCF’s) next leadership-class supercomputer, continue to proceed on schedule. The OLCF, a US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility, is located at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
Since September 2015, several new milestones have been achieved, including notable progress on the electrical infrastructure that will power Summit upon arrival in late 2017.
As of January 2016, construction crews are finishing the installation of a subsurface duct bank on the west end of the Computational Sciences building. The duct bank will connect the transformers supporting Summit to the existing ORNL electrical distribution system.
To complete this phase of the project, personnel employed a robotic camera system to ensure the existing duct bank attached to the campus electrical distribution system was empty and safe for tie-in to the new duct bank. Once that was confirmed, the duct bank was safely excavated and cut to allow for installation of a new electrical manhole, which will connect to the ORNL electrical distribution system.
From the tie-in point on the west end of the Computational Sciences building, the electrical circuits supporting Summit will be routed into the building via a new overhead conduit bridge to be installed in February. The conduit path through the building leads to the transformer platform, completed in 2015, in the building’s courtyard. Cable pulls and switchgear installation will immediately follow the completion of the duct bank and conduit bridge.
Additional milestones:
- Final preparations are being made in anticipation of installing and connecting new transformers to the 13.8 kV lines.
- Completion of new cooling tower site preparations and construction to begin in mid-January.
- Central Energy Plant room nearing completion with crews preparing for mechanical equipment installation.
For more details on Summit, please visit: https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/summit/.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is supported by the US Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
