Inside..a pump

Yes, I was inside a seacoolingwaterpump.
At left you see the impeller of the so-called screwpump, made of titanium.
It rotates in a concrete casing, part of the pumping building.
At the right, lit by a halogen lamp is the non-returnvalve.
This valve has hydraulic dampers.
Behind the valve is the concrete duct of about 10 meters high.
When the pump is stopped, the water in that duct will come back to the pump.
Without hydraulic dampers the valve would close with tremendous speed, causing severe damage.
This pump has a capacity of appr. 8 cubic meters of water per second; that is 8000! liters per second.
The pump is driven by an electric motor of 1000Kilowatts.

Why titanium?
Because that's about the only material that can whitstand the amount of sand we have in our cooling water.....

Here in LARGE....