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May 11, 2006
Ambition Fulfilled
While at school or college (correct me on this one Jonathan), we managed to get ourselves on a trip to CERN, even if we did end up staying in the red light district of Geneva 
It was at this time that the concept of fusion was explained, and how a new facility was being built in the UK to test out the theory, and bring forth a new source of power. Cheap, clean, no side effects, it sounded too good to be true. More so, I never imagined I'd get to visit the place itself.
So, imagine my excitement, today, as I got the chance to visit
Joint European Torus, or JET for short. Based near Abingdon at the former Fleet Air Arm airfield, HMS Hornbill, now the
Culham Science Centre. Why? Well, they're using Primavera to manage the shutdown and maintenance cycles, and had seen my presentation last year and invited us along for a chat. Understanding the extreme environment they have to operate in, I can see why planning and scheduling can be so important. After all, you don't want to be shutting down all that expensive kit only for it to lay idle whilst you wait for the parts to arrive.
We didn't get to see inside the hall itself, as the machine was running. But we did get to see inside the control room, and around the refurbishment halls. Had to chuckle, having looked round one "sealed" practise containment area, only to find that the sides weren't actually attached to the floor. It reminded me of a story I was once told, of how a company was proudly showing off their cleanroom facility to an overseas customer, only for a delegate to ask why there was a dead fly on the inside of the window. As they say, not everything is perfect, and you can't plan for every eventuality 
Posted by alan at May 11, 2006 09:38 PM
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