Europe’s final vacuum vessel section for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) nuclear fusion project in France has arrived onsite.
Fusion for Energy (F4E), the European Union’s organisation for Europe’s contribution to the €22bn ($24.6bn) Iter project, said the component left Westinghouse’s factory in Monfalcone, Italy, and was transported by French industrial conglomerate Daher to the site in Cadarache.
The manufacturing of the vessel section was in collaboration with Italian engineering company Ansaldo Nucleare, US nuclear company Westinghouse Electric, and Italy-based industrial firm Walter Tosto.
The arrival of the vacuum vessel section marks the end of a manufacturing journey which started 16 years ago for what is the last large Iter component to be delivered.
F4E said at least 15 companies across Europe were involved in the project.
The vacuum vessel is key to the operation of the Iter fusion plant. The massive double-walled container, made of stainless steel, will house the fusion reaction, providing a clean environment keeping away air, dust or impurities from entering its chamber.
The vacuum vessel has nine sections. Europe has produced five of them and the South Korea the remaining four.
Once the sections are joined, the vacuum vessel will be 19.4 metres in diameter, 11.4 metres high and weigh approximately 5,200 tonnes.
Iter is a tokamak fusion reactor which works by using a donut-shaped chamber where hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium are heated to over 100 million °C, which forms a plasma. Magnets keep plasma away from the walls, meaning ions can collide and fuse and release energy.
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy. It is the same process that powers the sun and the stars and could potentially provide limitless amounts of energy.
Earlier this year Iter director-general Pietro Barabaschi said Iter was in a key phase of machine assembly and was both on budget and on schedule, the head of the project has said.
He said lessons had been learned following multiple delays that set the project back and sent its costs to over €22bn.
