S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator

"In the year 2020, you and your wife, Tess Morgan, successfully launched a particle accelerator that changed the course of history."

- Eobard Thawne to Harrison Wells

The S.T.A.R. Labs particle accelerator, nicknamed The Pipeline, is a device that was created by S.T.A.R. Labs. Following its destruction, it was eventually used as a prison to house numerous meta-humans that it had created. Eobard Thawne also used it as a backup hideout.

The Explosion
The particle accelerator was designed by S.T.A.R. Labs to power all of Central City with clean energy, however when they turned it on, something went horribly wrong, and the particle accelerator exploded, sending a huge shock-wave in to the clouds and through the entire city. It also created a lightning storm above the Central City Police Department, electrocuting Barry Allen and sending him in to a coma.

Repurposing the accelerator
Eventually, after Barry Allen's team concluded that they couldn't keep killing meta-humans, they realized that the cavities in the particle accelerator's core chamber could contain the meta-humans' powers, and converted it into a makeshift meta-human prison. Each cavity uses a 8.3 tesla super conducting electromagnet on its barrier which makes the seal 100,000 times stronger then Earth's magnetic field. This means that it can hold Meta-humans with super strength like Tony Woodward. The team now calls the particle accelerator "The Pipeline" when referring to it in this capacity.

The Pipeline
After The Flash defeated Kyle Nimbus, he was imprisoned in the Pipeline.

Shortly afterwards, the entire Central City Circus were imprisoned after their defeat by Barry.

Tony Woodward followed, only to be released by Harrison Wells shortly after his initial imprisonment to combat Farooq Gibran when he broke into S.T.A.R. Labs to find Wells. Gibran killed Woodward, but after Gibran himself was killed, his corpse was put into a cell, where Wells extracted some of his blood to find out how he took Barry's powers.

After making his presence known in Central City, Roy Bivolo was defeated by the combined forces of The Flash and The Arrow and imprisoned in the Pipeline as well.

Hartley Rathaway was briefly imprisoned here before breaking out.

Shawna Baez was imprisoned in a special cell made with mirrored glass to prevent her from teleporting out.

After he traveled back in time to stop Mark Mardon's tidal wave from destroying Central City, Barry used his knowledge of future events to find Mardon and imprison him in the Pipeline before he could do any real damage.

Jake Simmons was incarcerated here after his defeat by the Atom.

After impersonating many people and causing terror in Central City, Hannibal Bates was defeated by Barry and imprisoned in the Pipeline but was freed by Eobard in exchange for impersonating him in order to set up Barry Allen's team, knowing he'd be killed. Following his kidnapping of Eddie Thawne, Eobard took him to a secret lair he'd set up underneath the Pipeline.

Thawne later had Grodd release a mind-controlled Wade Eiling on Central City. After Barry defeated him, the general went into a vegetative state and was locked up in the particle accelerator. However, after Grodd was defeated, the team released Eiling. That evening, Eobard left his lair underneath the accelerator and entered the Pipeline, turning it on with the "key" he had created in his lair.

Current inmates

 * Kyle Nimbus/The Mist
 * Nathan Bliss/Mr. Bliss
 * Rajeet
 * Joey Rose
 * Roy Bivolo/Rainbow Raider
 * Shawna Baez/Peek-a-Boo
 * Mark Mardon/Weather Wizard
 * Jake Simmons/Deathbolt
 * Farooq Gibran/Blackout (corpse)

Former inmates

 * Hartley Rathaway/Pied Piper
 * Wade Eiling/The General
 * Tony Woodward/Girder (deceased)
 * Hannibal Bates/Everyman (deceased)

The Flash: Season Zero

 * "The Big Finale"
 * "Fish Fry" (mentioned)

Behind the scenes

 * The entrance to the particle accelerator's core chamber is marked as Entrance 52, a reference to DC's ongoing use of the number 52.
 * The design on the particle accelerator's door looks similar to Firestorm's logo from the DC comics.
 * In Eobard Thawne's original timeline, the particle accelerator opened in the year 2020.
 * Both Nathan Bliss and Shawna Baez are incarcerated in cells with two-way mirrored glass to prevent them using their powers.