Heart of the world’s largest nuclear fusion reactor to be assembled by US firm
Westinghouse Electric Company has signed a $180 million contract with the ITER Organization, responsible for the world’s largest nuclear fusion facility, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).
The contract makes Westinghouse responsible for the final assembly of the tokamak’s most vital component. This development brings the project closer to its goal of operating at 500 MW with 50 MW of plasma heating power input.
The project plan, announced in June last year, targets “a scientifically and technically robust initial phase of operations, including deuterium-deuterium fusion operation in 2035, followed by full magnetic energy and plasma current operation.”
The aim of ITER is to generate 500 MW of fusion power from 50 MW of input heating power, a tenfold energy gain. ITER will not generate electricity, but it is designed to demonstrate fusion as a large-scale, carbon-free energy source for future power plants.
Westinghouse’s role in vacuum vessel assembly
Under the contract, Westinghouse will complete the vacuum vessel. This double-walled steel container will house the fusion plasma. When all nine sectors of the vacuum vessel are in place, Westinghouse will begin welding them together to form a single, circular, torus-shaped chamber.
“ITER is pleased to have Westinghouse Electric Company taking on this significant role in our first-of-a-kind project,” said ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi.
“With decades of leadership in nuclear power plant design and construction, we are confident that Westinghouse will be able to apply its remarkable expertise to the assembly of the ITER Tokamak.”
Westinghouse, a long-standing leader in the nuclear fission industry, has been involved with the ITER project for more than a decade. The company has contributed to manufacturing parts for the ITER vacuum vessel, including five vacuum vessel sectors in cooperation with its partners in the AMW consortium, Italy’s Ansaldo Nucleare and Walter Tosto.
Westinghouse’s participation involved developing fabrication techniques and collaborating with global partners to meet ITER’s quality requirements.
International collaboration for ITER
The ITER project is an international collaboration involving 35 nations. The European Union contributes almost half of the construction cost, while China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the USA contribute equally to the rest.
Construction of the ITER facility began in 2010. The original target for “first plasma” was 2018, revised to 2025 by the ITER council in 2016, and updated to the 2035 timeline last year.
Recently, China completed the shipment of the final set of Correction Coil Incryostat Feeder components to the site of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) in the south of France.
All the gigantic components needed for ITER’s magnet feeder system have now been successfully developed according to the sources.
Now, the execution of this vacuum vessel assembly contract by Westinghouse is a step in the project’s progress.
“Our expert teams look forward to bringing our world-class capabilities and expertise to the completion of this important project,” concluded Dan Sumner, Westinghouse Interim CEO.