Description

The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) aims to establish the plasma physical fundamentals of a fusion power station that, like the sun, generates energy out of nuclear fusion. The fuel for this process is a so-called plasma, a thin ionised gas composed of the hydrogen derivatives Deuterium und Tritium. To spark the fusion process, this fuel is trapped in an annular magnetic coil and brought to a high temperature. If it can be achieved to confine the plasma particles by the magnetic forces to a sufficiently dense and thermally insulated state, it will start to ”burn” above a temperature of 100 million degrees centigrade. The hydrogen nucleuses merge to Helium releasing usable energy. As resources of the basic agents Deuterium (in the sea) and Tritium (derived from Lithium in the power plant) are nearly unlimited, nuclear fusion could become a key technology for future energy supply.

An experiment comprehensive as this requires the cooperation of scientists, engineers, and technical staff from all kinds of backgrounds. The institute founded in 1960 currently employs approximately 1,000 employees. For a long time, Garching near Munich was the only facility of its kind until a Plasma Diagnostics Section was opened in Berlin in 1992. The new Greifswald branch was founded in 1994 as part of the Max Planck Society’s campaign to found or outsource new institutes in the former GDR and will employ up to 300 scientists. An important reason to chose Greifswald as a new base was the strong existing academic and technological infrastructure in plasma physics: Both the University Institute of Physics and the Institute for Low Temperature Plasma Physics (a branch of the Leibnitz Society) are located in Greifswald.

Accordingly, the programme of the building is highly complex. All areas have to be arranged in such a way that they enable efficient multi-disciplinary cooperation between the scientists working in the laboratories as well as cooperation between scientists and analysts, technical staff, and office and administrative staff. The layout of the different areas and their interconnection according to functional criteria called for a strict zoning, yet still led to a highly communicative complex.

The scientific work at the institute is characterised by the close proximity of development and experiments. A central programme of the Greifswald centre is WENDELSTEIN 7-X. This is a fusion experiment conducted to prove the suitability of the IPP stellarator concept for industrial power generation. The core of this technology is the so-called Torus, a system of 50 non-planar supra-conductive magnetic coils that is housed in its own building. The layout of the institute was to provide shortest possible connections and good orientation between this testing facility and the offices, preferably under one roof.

The various spaces are arranged along a central access spine. It links the offices of the think-tanks, which are stacked on three to four levels, with the workshops and the Torus building at its end. As innovative thinking and the generation of new ideas primarily depend on face-to-face communication, informal conversations are essential. Hence, the circulation axis serves communication and social interaction; at the same time it links the entrance hall and the library as well as the cafeteria and the seminar rooms on the upper floors. As a transparent structure made of steel and glass it affords visual links to the exterior environment and marries the architecture with the surrounding landscape. This connection is further enhanced by the succession of green courtyards and office wings reaching out into the environment like fingers. Furthermore, the different institute sections Research and Development were symbolically and physically connected by a prominent and literally superimposed wavy roof.

The exterior appearance of the two building parts is a direct result of the different requirements. The Torus building as a purely technical facility is a largely solid structure nearly without windows. Its exterior walls of heavy 2 m thick concrete received a cladding of trapezoid aluminium panels. Since during the experiments inside Neutron radiation is released, Boron had to be added to the concrete. The Torus hall was built as a monolithic concrete structure for two months, 24 hours a day, under the highest safety regulations and constant supervision.

The office wings form an architectural juxtaposition to the Torus building: façades are clad with prefabricated brick panels reminiscent of traditional North German brick façades. Exterior shutters provide solar protection and casement windows provide natural ventilation. The southern front of the workshop wing incorporates little maintenance balconies for solar protection during summer. In wintertime, low sunrays fall deeply into the building resulting in desirable solar heat gains.

Ventilation of the individual building parts follows the requirements with regard to their position, use, and the extraction of heat or air. Essentially, the building was laid out in a way that allows all exterior physical laboratories, the workshops, the library, and the offices to be naturally ventilated. However, as a result of the high thermal output and critical air contamination in parts of the laboratories and workshops, supplementary mechanical ventilation was required. The seminar room, the computer pool, and the cafeteria as well as the testing area are also air-conditioned.

Tests in the Torus hall are characterised by an extreme energy use. The amounts of required electrical energy are of such an exceptional nature that they cannot simply be supplied through the local net (furthermore, experiments run in different cycles). This made a special 110 kV line necessary that was provided by a nationwide energy supplier. In order to transform the high voltage to the respectively required wattage the institute comprises its own open-air transformer station.

Operation of the plasma burners prompts waste energy outputs of up to 40 MW per test run that have to be extracted. To provide the required cooling water of 13 degrees centigrade, it is pumped in a special cooling circuit from a 1,300 m³ water reservoir into another basin of equal dimensions. Subsequently, the water is cooled down again via heat exchangers.

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Originally published in: Hardo Braun, Dieter Grömling, Research and Technology Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2005.