The Cooling Tower Detail Draft key
About this model

DETAIL DRAFT · 30 OCT 2026

A complete facility perimeter, open access through the cooling tower X-braces, a dedicated condenser loop, an open turbine hall with dance gantries, and refueling-grid forms that rise on the beat. The pipework now has labeled destinations and a makeshift cone-marked crew route.

A pocket-sized look at the world, no VR needed · 3 connected venues · tower 110 m tall

The night, in order

  1. Meet up and head in Gather at the mountain-lake intake, pick up hard hats and follow the twin pipes for a 20–30 second approach to the broken west gate. Cross the yard, enter through the west-side gap onto the lower waffle grid, walk through the rain zone, then climb the original scaffolding to the main deck.
  2. The Stack Up the stairs to the grating deck at the tops of the X-legs, crowd all round the low DJ stage on the water riser. Lasers and LED-lit plume circles pour out of the top and ride the wind east off the map, with lightning flashing through the smoke each time a set starts; spaced cooling-fill banks sit below the open steel grating, with wide gaps revealing the collection basin; water falls from the banks into the basin below. A caged ladder up the outside, tagged with graffiti, leads to the rim: no railing, just a wide concrete lip where people sit and watch.
  3. Turbine Hall Follow the makeshift cone lane and painted arrows beside the pipes to an open turbine service door. The open high bay has a crane, a glass-covered turbine cutaway visible from the crowd, raised dance platforms along the turbine train, and a two-person DJ/VJ console facing the audience.
  4. Reactor Hall Through the equipment hatch into the dome. Refueling-outage view: the open reactor vessel sits beneath a flooded cavity. Its removed lid is parked on a separate stand. The DJ booth and moving fuel-grid show are fictional venue elements.
  5. Pad back to 1 whenever you want.
Numbered water systems · 1–4 + M

1 · Reactor coolant: reactor vessel → steam generators → coolant pumps → reactor. 1A–1D mark the four primary branches.

2 · Steam / feedwater: steam generators → turbine → condensers → feedwater pumps → steam generators. Heat passes between systems 1 and 2 without mixing their water.

3 · Tower cooling water: cold basin → circulating pump → condenser cooling tubes → warm return → distribution nozzles → fill banks → rain into basin. The fill banks below the stack grate cool water; the turbine-hall condensers turn steam back into water. Systems 2 and 3 exchange heat without mixing.

4 · Detector purification: detector water → dedicated treatment skid in the existing water-services building → detector. Separate from reactor and tower water. The oversized swim passage is fictional.

M · Make-up supply: lake → intake pumps → treatment → tower basin, replacing evaporation and other losses. This is a supply path, not a fifth loop.

Numbering is this model’s guide. Pipe routing and equipment are simplified; the operating cycles are shown for explanation even though the reactor is depicted open for refueling.

The setting

A lake-fed valley ringed by forested rolling mountains, always at night under a blue-black sky full of stars that turn slowly round the pole star. The whole facility is fenced. The staff road enters through a guarded vehicle gate and connects to the marked parking lot. The damaged pipe gate is a separate way in. Open the Site guide to identify every building, the cars and their purpose. The plume drifts off on the wind.

Inside the reactor hall

The reactor is the steel vessel under the pool, beneath the bridge: lid off, core glowing blue at the bottom, water above the open vessel during refueling. Hover over or tap any part to see its name.

Refueling-grid show feature

Square fuel-assembly forms sit in a tight grid above the reactor vessel. Individual bundles lift at different heights and angles, with a loose wave across the grid. Real fuel assemblies are long square bundles of rods held by spacer grids; this synchronized, oversized movement is the theatrical part.

Music status

Preview beat · 126 BPM. Choose a local track to drive the plates with its sound.

Who runs the lights

Each venue has a DJ and VJ position with a show console. One booth is live at a time. It runs its own venue and the halls the night has already passed. The displays, equipment lights and power effects give each space its own visual identity.

World build wishlist · ideas to review

Turbine hall · VJ lighting

Mount pan/tilt spotlight panels on the crane girders. Let the VJ switch between hard-edged gobo/stencil patterns, pixel grids, slow color washes, and silhouette-like projections across the crowd. For avatar-facing stencil effects, treat it as a shader goal with a world-light/projection fallback: player shader support varies by platform, especially on Android.

Stack · laser looks

Try counter-rotating spiral fans, an X-brace lattice, stacked horizontal rings, slow perimeter sweeps, and a narrow helix that corkscrews through the shaft. Every beam should visibly begin at a mounted projector head on a bracket or truss and point toward its target; no floating beam origins.

Separate initiative · Pipe Crew wearable pack

Unity accessories: sticker-covered hard hat, event clipboard, walkie-talkie, lab glasses and Geiger-counter prop. Independent attachment anchors, adjustable fit and removable sticker art. Optional tablet variant. Production is a separate initiative.

Reactor viewing

The lower gallery and transparent vessel are fictional educational cutaways. Real reactor vessels have steel walls, not visitor windows. Use Reactor core to inspect the assemblies.

Neutrino observatory

A golden sensor-lined tank with water purification, readout electronics, high-voltage supplies, UPS, cooling/ventilation and calibration equipment. The visible tank is a cutaway placeholder for a deep underground cavern. Music drives a fictional calibration show; the science is neutrino detection, not entanglement measurement. Research water stays separate from plant cooling water.

Water and exits

Use a wooded upland lake as the make-up source, without a required dam or second river intake. Pumps control delivery and overcome pipe losses; the condenser cooling loop still circulates with pumps. Green exit markers identify independent yard exits; final stairs and evacuation routes need a dedicated layout pass.

Building roles

One fuel building handles fuel storage and transfer. One shared water-services building houses separate detector purification and plant make-up skids, linked by above-ground pipes. The auxiliary building retains safety and waste-treatment duties. The detector electronics hut is readout equipment, not a second plant control room. The detector is buried beneath the yard at a compressed depth. Go underground enters the tank; Detector cutaway removes its ground cover and roof. The oversized swim tunnel and buffer chamber are fictional gameplay additions. Existing water services handle the separate purification loop; the existing electronics hut and R&D lab serve the observatory.

Architecture and show startup

Turbine hall: a glazed barrel roof gives the audience a view of the stars. Reactor containment remains concrete and steel; its transparency in this preview is a cutaway. The detector has power and electronics in standby before the event. Starting the Stack cues a fictional calibration light show; the cooling tower does not generate electricity. Real detector measurements require a dark tank.

Asset placeholders: rooftop packaged HVAC with fan grilles and ducts, exhaust caps, downpipes, framed clerestory windows, entrance canopies, steps and wall lights. Plant logos sit at control, stores and research; crew graffiti marks the stack rim, riser and maintenance route.

Arrival and bulk yard

The main entrance serves the southwest parking area. The road arrives from the east and follows the south perimeter before turning into the staff gate. The parking footprint is 104 × 60 m, four times the previous area. Four rows of bays flank a central driving aisle. Four 22 m nitrogen Hortonspheres and two tanks each of acid and caustic occupy the former parking footprint, grouped into nitrogen, acid and caustic sections.

Detector water inventory

Pure-water buffer and recovery tanks serve the detector. Optional gadolinium-sulfate mixing tank and sealed dry stock represent an SK-Gd-inspired upgrade; this salt is not sulfuric acid. Purification uses filters, UV, degassing, ion-exchange media and heat exchangers. The four nitrogen spheres are oversized site-utility storage, not a detector requirement. Acid and caustic tanks belong to the plant water-treatment concept and do not feed the detector pool.

Staff / industrial zoning

Staff parking is southwest of the workshop; the road follows the outside of the south perimeter to its entrance. The former parking footprint is now the bulk utility yard, with nitrogen spheres grouped together and separate acid and caustic containment. A pedestrian path runs north of the storage zone to control. Workshop and spare parts means repair tools, replacement components and maintenance supplies.

Tower and detector anatomy

The tower has fill below the fictional dance deck, falling water and a collection basin. Its water mains use the turbine service side, clear of control offices. The neutrino tank belongs underground: this exposed model shows its sensor walls, cavern outline, upper service deck, cable ring and lower fill/return pipes. Detector cutaway hides one sensor-wall sector. Plant control is on the left; the single R&D lab on the right is closed pending its interior design. Detector readout is equipment, not another staffed control room.

Overhead utility spine

Grouped mains run above the parking center lane on portal frames. Ladders reach a service catwalk alongside flanged valve manifolds. The lowest main crossbeam is 6.8 m above the concept ground. Blue is the make-up supply; the other two runs reserve treatment-return and utility branches for the next routing pass. All are visual concept piping, not a construction design.

Pipe mechanics audit

Blue condenser supply and amber return retain their color through full-size headers. Smaller condenser takeoffs use visible reducers. Paired flanges sit on straight sections; unused manifold ends are blind-capped. Silver steam branches reach turbine casings. Detector supply and return are separate. Capped utility and buffer-tank branches are reserved connections, not completed process loops.

The crew crosses the yard directly from the tower to the open west maintenance entrance of the turbine hall. Cones and arrows mark this straight approach.

Pump house and elevated pipe route

The pump-house ladders now meet the roof, with a roof platform leading to the elevated red utility mains. A grated catwalk follows those pipes over the yard. Stairs return to grade, and roof bridges lead toward the workshop, water treatment, control side and process halls. Crossings are concept access routes; final structural supports and safe clearances remain to be designed.

Water supply routing

Raw lake water feeds the water-treatment building first. Treated service water then goes to plant users. Bulk acid/caustic and nitrogen remain in the separated utility yard; they do not share the raw-water line.

Cozy rooms

Add a warm break room with couches, low lamps, soft rugs and a quiet alcove, plus scientist offices with a small shared lounge. Include an office plaque for Audrey and a degree frame labeled “Audrey’s degree” as a placeholder until the exact credential is supplied.

Bulk yard · representative examples

Use a small warehouse with loading apron and forklifts, then one readable example each of: water-treatment acid and caustic tanks with containment berms; demineralized-water and firewater tanks; lube-oil storage; a diesel day tank; compressed-air receiver; and separately fenced hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon-dioxide cylinder banks or vessels. Sizes and counts are illustrative, since actual inventory varies by plant design.

Pipe-layout tools

For a real piping workflow, Autodesk Plant 3D builds spec-driven pipe layouts and P&IDs; Autodesk Viewer is useful for inspecting shared CAD models in a browser. FreeCAD BIM is a free desktop option for parametric pipe runs. This model checks its own pipes and handrails with the Pipe Continuity and Rail Continuity auditors: Map controls → Audits.

Live: booth 1 · lights on venue 1

Lighting rig

  • Lasers
  • Moving heads
  • Washes & glows
  • Power effects
  • X-brace beacons
  • Crowd
Questionnaire photo referencesBalakovo turbine hall: white housings, blue gallery and yellow rails

Balakovo turbine hall · Alexander Seetenky · CC BY-SA 3.0. Used for the gallery, rails, floor and equipment arrangement.

Exposed low-pressure turbine rotor with rows of blades

Philippsburg rotor · AlfvanBeem · CC0. Used for the exposed blade rows.

Navigation help

Moving around: pick a venue under Go to a place in the Map controls panel (or keys 1, 2, 3) and the view glides there and spins round it; click any part and it turns around that part instead (the pink ring marks it). Drag to turn, scroll to zoom, scroll-click drag (or right-drag) to pan sideways or vertically. Double-click a surface to move close; scroll to zoom right in. The ground always stays level. W A S D or the arrow keys move you, Q / E down and up (above the ground), Shift faster, F back to the whole plant. On a phone, drag to turn and pinch to zoom. Tap the title to fold this key away.

Map controlscontrols
Show / hide

Switches change what is visible.

Pipe services

One colour per fluid. Tap to show or hide it; hover a pipe for its service and diameter.

Audits

Re-check the drawing with the Pipe Continuity and Rail Continuity auditors, the pipe supports Pipe Spawn placed and the scaffolds Scaffold Spawn built. Tap a finding to fly to it.

Go to a place

Arrows move the camera to a view.

What’s on the site

Click a name to inspect it. The small vehicles are parked night-shift cars.

The broken service gate at the pipes is the rave crew’s entrance.

Turning around: the whole plant

Drag to turn · pinch to zoom · two fingers to move