On top of the tank
Dear All,
Having just received a reminder for my appointment on Monday, I enclose my entry for the “unusual place “competition.
I send it promptly as my camera has no date stamp facility for the pictures, or it may have but I couldn’t find it before I lost patience!
When the reminder came I found myself on top of a “cryogenic test facility”, not that exciting I know, but still an usual place to be.
This test bunker is part of a project with which I have been commercially and technically involved for around two years. It is for testing the performance of superconducting magnet coils, these are very high field magnet coils similar to those used in MRI machines. These operate at liquid helium temperature of -270 degrees C! The bunker is made of more than 60 tons of steel, positioned to contain the huge magnetic fields which would otherwise stop heart pacemakers or attract large metal objects from several meters away.
The project is part of a development program for new generation Cancer treatments. The technology is licensed and is proven as a far more effective and targetable treatment than conventional radiotherapy techniques. The goal of this project is to make this treatment more accessible to the world as a whole. It is personally important to me as I have lost close family to cancer and hope that the future will be brighter as a result of these new technologies.