The flexible fluxprobe is a technology invented in 2000 by Jim DeHaan, Umberto Milano, and Malin Lester Jacobs, electrical engineers at the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) within the Department of Interior, that detects magnetic fields within the generators that generate power in hydroelectric dams. The device is relatively inexpensive, small, flexible, and light and can be installed relatively easily (see Figure D.1). As water flows through a hydroelectric dam, it turns a turbine which, in turn, turns the generator rotor. The generator comprises two main elements: (1) the rotor consisting of field poles, the rotating portion of the generator, and (2) stationary coils mounted to a stator, the stationary portion of the generator, that surrounds the field poles. Direct current is applied to the field poles generating a magnetic field. When the turbine turns the rotor, the field poles move over the stator coils that generate electricity. Generators are connected to power lines that transmit electricity to surrounding regions.
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