CASE STUDY HALLEY VI
continent annually by the station’s supply ship. The base’s lighting system, too, has
vacuum toilet system, similar to those installed in aircraft, which uses 10% of the water of a conventional drainage system. For sewage treatment, a Microbac bioreactor sewage treatment plant is used. This has been designed to create a good growth environment for bacteria to help reduce the amount of sludge produced. The Antarctic Treaty Environmental Protocol prohibits the dumping of waste on land or in the sea. As a result, both waste food and human waste is dried in special centrifuges, before being burned in a Surefire incinerator or shipped out. In addition, recyclable waste is separated, compacted, bagged and shipped off the
Building the world’s most remote research station
Construction and commissioning of the base took place in a 10-week period over four austral summers, from the beginning of December 2008 to February 2012. The short build-period and difficult conditions meant that it was critical to prefabricate and modularise as much of the station as possible before the modules were shipped to the ice shelf.
All components were delivered by sea and had to be towed to the site on sledges across thin ice. The weight of individual components and modules was limited to six tonnes if they were hauled on a sledge, and nine tonnes if the components had their own skis.
The finished blue modules weigh up to 100 tonnes each, while the red communal module weighs close to 200 tonnes, which meant each had to be supplied as a kit of parts and assembled 12km away at Halley V, where the ice was thicker. The finished modules were then towed to the station’s final location using caterpillar tractors over a prepared surface. During the first summer – when temperatures can reach a balmy 4°C and it is
30 CIBSE Journal April 2013
light 24 hours a day – all of the standard modules were assembled by a 60-strong construction crew from contractor Morrision, working in shifts around the clock.
K. Fit-out of the fixtures, fittings and services in the modules took place over the final two summers.
First the lower space-frame of the superstructure and the modules legs were assembled. Then floor cassettes, containing the bulk of the piped services and electrics, were lifted into position by crane and the underfloor cladding installed. The accommodation pods and large prefabricated mechanical and electrical plant were than craned onto the newly created platforms before the portal frame superstructure steelwork was lifted into position. In the second summer, lightweight glass- reinforced plastic cladding panels were bolted to the steelwork. The panels consist of closed-cell polyisocyanurate foam insulation encapsulated in GRP. The system provides a U-value of 0.113 W/ m2K. The triple glazed windows have a U-value of 0.7 W/m2
been developed as a low energy scheme. The site’s southern location means the sun will fail to appear above the horizon for 105 days each year, and the station will be in complete darkness for 55 days. Externally, LEDs are used for floodlights, while the modules incorporate LEDs in their underside to assist ‘way-finding’ in bad weather. In the low Antarctic temperatures, the LED lamps operate up to 30% more brightly than usual. Inside the modules, lighting is predominantly long-life fluorescent lamps mixed with LEDs for emergency lighting and some accent lighting. Fluorescents were chosen for their energy efficiency and because they produce a better quality of light – an important consideration when you consider the station will be in complete darkness for a significant part of the year. Internal work areas are illuminated to high levels using cool, artificial light. The living areas and bedrooms use far warmer-toned lighting than the laboratories.
Psychological wellbeing To help maintain the scientist’s psychological wellbeing, each bunk is provided with a wall-mounted seasonal affective disorder (SAD) bed-head lamp with local control, which allows occupants to receive up to 10,000 lux of ultra-blue 17,000 K daylight-coloured light as part of their morning wake-up alarm. The panels operate on a dawn setting to reach full brightness slowly, to assist in the suppression of melatonin and to help stimulate the body’s production of mood- enhancing serotonin. Halley VI’s low energy lighting solution
helps minimise the station’s impact on the environment. In fact, the design treads so lightly on the planet that the only waste left on the frozen continent is treated waste water, but even this has been purified to European bathing standards before being discharged. Aecom has even made provision in the design for the future installation of photovoltaics and solar thermal panels. Tests are under way to establish the applicability of the units in the Antarctic. If successful, the panels will be used in the summer months when the station is fully occupied and bathed in continual daylight, reducing its environmental impact still further. CJ
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