X-300 Plant Control Facility
The X-300 Plant Control Facility provided all control, instrumentation and communication equipment required for supervision, direction and coordination of overall plant operations in one central location. The exterior walls, roof, floor slabs, stairs, tunnels, vault and other structural members are constructed of reinforced concrete which has considerable shielding qualities and resistance to blasts or shocks. At the time it was built in 1954, the building was said to be designed to be both earthquake proof and bomb proof. Also, the circular shape of the building and the dome-shaped roof offered similar resistance.
Supervisory control equipment, offices and auxiliary rooms were located on the ground floor, while the building power equipment, communication equipment and air-conditioning and ventilating equipment were located in the basement. Control and instrumentation tunnels extended from the basement to each of the process buildings. Communication, control, and instrumentation cables from all process buildings, switch houses and the telephone building entered the X-300 Plant Control Facility through these tunnels. Sufficient equipment was installed to monitor operating conditions that were vitally important to the successful operation of the production cascade and power systems. Also provided was the control equipment required to continue process operations from this location for an indefinite period if all operating personnel were evacuated from the rest of the site.
A series of panels for the three gaseous diffusion buildings extended in an arc around three quadrants of the room. Within this partial ring and in the northwest half of the room, a semicircular depressed floor area created a pit for the power control instrument panels and a power communications console. The two stairs from either side of the record desk area extended from the main floor to the pit level. The area between these stairs, which occurs adjacent to the center of the room, was the location of three communication consoles from which the operators could observe every panel provided in the room.
Construction
Completed in 1954
Building Size
110 ft in diameter, with a total floor area of 8,246 sq ft.
