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TEXTOR: taking tungsten to the limit
h, 02/20/2012 - 11:26Material erosion under fusion-relevant conditions is of critical importance for all materials applied to ITER. A recent campaign at the German-based tokamak TEXTOR, jointly conducted by the Research Centre in Jülich and the Japanese University of Tohoku upon the initiative of the International Energy Agency (IEA), studied the erosion and melt behaviour of tungsten on a longer timescale.
Founded in response to the 1973/74 oil crisis the International Energy Agency (IEA), with its headquarters in Paris, is an autonomous organization which works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 28 member countries and beyond. Today, one of the main focus areas is energy security, i.e., promoting diversity, efficiency and flexibility within all energy sectors and most of all ensuring the stable and economical supply of energy for the future.
One of IEA's Technology Initiatives—also known as Implementing Agreements—is the Program of Research and Development on Plasma-Wall Interaction in TEXTOR which has existed since 1978 with its member countries USA, Japan, Canada and the European Union. TEXTOR - a medium sized tokamak operated by Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) in Germany - was constructed in 1982 to develop novel technologies for the extraction of energy from the burn chamber of nuclear fusion reactors. Due to its configuration TEXTOR is predestined to run so-called "high risk" experiments that could not be conducted easily in other fusion machines.
While in the past experiments at TEXTOR under the IEA Technology Initiative focused on thin-film coating technologies for large burn chambers (e.g., boronization and carbonization) as well as helium pumping and the optimization of graphite tiles, current test campaigns focus on the testing of tungsten structures in the boundary plasma of the TEXTOR machine.
As a best-choice material for the divertor, tungsten is of crucial importance for the success of ITER and that of later power plants (also see Newsline #206 and #207). To determine the material's limits or operational regime, fusion scientists from Japanese universities and research institutes met in Jülich from 23-28 January to perform joint experiments with their colleagues from Forschungszentrum Jülich, using TEXTOR as the test bed and the IEA Implementing Agreement as the organizational frame.
During this campaign highly refined tungsten samples were exposed to the hot TEXTOR plasma in order to study two crucial questions related to material lifetime and performance: material erosion under fusion-relevant conditions and crack resilience under intensive transient and steady state heat loads.
The University of Tohoku had developed toughened, fine-grained and recrystallized (TFGR) tungsten materials for the experimental campaign that contained trace amounts of the chemical compounds TiC (Titanium Carbide) and TaC (Tantalum Carbide) in the percent range. Having been exposed to Jülich's electron beam test facility JUDITH before performing the actual experiment inside the burn chamber of TEXTOR, the materials showed impressive performance to transient heat loads.
The tests—together with the initial surface analysis of the samples—revealed a release of the contained titanium at a temperature of 1500 °C. In addition, microstructural changes in the melted surfaces were observed which could degrade performance under ITER-like plasma loads to a major extent. Further analysis of the test samples will now be performed in Japan and also at Jülich with the aim to characterize the change of the material's microstructure and its chemical composition in more detail.
"The all-tungsten divertor in ITER will be facing several challenges with respect to material lifetime and durability due to erosion and potential melting," said Jan Willem Coenen, leading scientist at FZJ and EFDA Fellow, who coordinated the campaign together with his colleagues from Jülich. "Studying advanced materials as well as existing material choices allows for a broader understanding of the material properties required for ITER and beyond."
To enhance international collaboration even further and to address material problems in nuclear fusion research in a more pronounced way, the intention is to widen the scope of the present IEA Technology Initiative. TEXTOR will continue to serve as a reliable workhorse for some time, but more and more use will be made of especially dedicated material test facilities like the linear plasma experiment JULE_PSI which will become operational by 2015 at Jülich, MAGNUM-PSI operated by DIFFER in the Netherlands, PISCES run by UCLA at San Diego and NAGDIS at the University of Nagoya in Japan. The new collaboration will also be open to non-member countries of IEA like China.
By sea, air and road
h, 02/20/2012 - 09:30Engineering designs, prototypes, production lines ... if we could only see into the innumerable workshops and laboratories currently working toward the production of one—or more than one—part of the ITER machine it would be dizzying. In a short time, components for ITER will begin to arrive on site in a carefully planned order that is closely associated with building and assembly schedules.
An important contract was signed this month that establishes the conditions for the transport of ITER components from suppliers' factories to the ITER site. The Logistics Service Provider (LSP) Framework Contract—which provides for global transport, logistic and insurance services—was signed on 10 February with the European company DAHER by Director-General Osamu Motojima on behalf of the ITER Organization and the seven ITER Members.
For the ITER Organization this was a first-of-a-kind joint procurement, carried out in close collaboration with the ITER Members. Within the boundaries of the contract, each Domestic Agency will now contract directly with the LSP provider by means of a Task Order for all of its transport needs.
Following a planning phase, during which the Domestic Agencies will furnish detailed information on foreseeable requirements, shipments will begin in 2014. Every aspect related to the transport of ITER loads—including customs management at departure and arrival, logistics, insurance, intermediate storage before delivery, handling, and final unloading at the ITER site—will be handled under the LSP contract. DAHER will work through either a local partner or a local subsidiary in each ITER Member country.
The largest ITER loads will arrive by ship from China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States and travel by night over the 104-kilometre ITER Itinerary (link). Agence Iter France (AIF) will act as the interface between the French authorities (préfecture, gendarmerie) and the Logistic Service Provider for all matters related to the use of ITER Itinerary.
"The transport of ITER components from so many different points on the globe and according to schedule is a logistics challenge of major proportions," stated ITER Director-General Motojima on the occasion of the contract signature. "An integrated Logistics Service Provider will be fully qualified to address these challenges and assure the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies of optimized coordination."
See the ITER Press Release in English and French here. See the DAHER Press Release in English and French here.
Fusion Olympics to be held in San Diego
p, 02/17/2012 - 17:46From 8-13 October, the world fusion community will get together in San Diego, USA, for the 24th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference. The FEC 2012 aims to provide a forum for the discussion of key physics and technology issues as well as innovative concepts of direct relevance to fusion as a source of nuclear energy.
With a number of next-step fusion devices currently being implemented — such as the ITER and the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in Livermore, USA — and in view of the concomitant need to demonstrate the technological feasibility of fusion power plants as well as the economical viability of this method of energy production, the fusion community is now facing new challenges. The resolution of these challenges will dictate research orientations in the present and coming decades.
The scientific scope of FEC 2012 is, therefore, intended to reflect the priorities of this new era in fusion energy research. The conference aims to be a platform for sharing the results of research and development efforts in both national and international fusion experiments that have been shaped by these new priorities, and thereby help in pinpointing worldwide advances in fusion theory, experiments, technology, engineering, safety and socio-economics. Furthermore, the conference will also set these results against the backdrop of the requirements for a net energy producing fusion device and a fusion power plant in general, and will thus help in defining the way forward.
With the participation of international organizations such as the ITER International Organization and Euratom, as well as the collaboration of more than forty countries and several research institutes, including those working on smaller plasma devices, it is expected that this conference will, as in the past, serve to identify possibilities and means for a continuous effective international collaboration.
For details regarding participant registration, paper submission and forms for registration, please visit the IAEA Official Website.
Space age feeling in the PF Coils building
p, 02/17/2012 - 17:46Dwarfed by the giant circular spreader beam suspended over their heads, they looked like passengers in a spaceport waiting to board a ship bound for some distant planet.
No journey to Mars or to the moons of Jupiter was planned for this day, however. Under the vast ceiling of the recently completed Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility on Tuesday 14 February, the sense of imminent departure was rather for a small ceremony involving personnel from the French construction consortium Spie Batignolles, Omega Concept and Setec; the engineering company Energhia; the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy; and the ITER Organization.
The Winding Facility, where the largest ITER coils will be assembled beginning next year, was changing hands. Having completed the building within schedule and within budget, the construction consortium was handing it over to Fusion for Energy who will now contract with the coil manufacturer.
Director of Fusion for Energy Frank Briscoe had come especially from Barcelona for the ceremony. "This building," he said in his informal address, "is the first ITER building to be completed. And for us, it will always remain the first..."
For Osamu Motojima, Director-General of the ITER Organization, the bright yellow spreader beam, with its brackets radiating like golden rays, was a potent symbol of what ITER is about—harnessing the fusion fire that burns inside the Sun and stars.
Except for the small crowd, one table, a couple of posters, two bridge cranes and the 40-ton spreader beam, the huge workshop was perfectly empty. One could imagine—a year or so from now—the bridge cranes slowly and silently moving along their rails to lift and manoeuvre charges of up to one hundred tons in a mechanical ballet combining exceptional size and extreme precision.
The curtain will be lifted in 2013 on this spectacular scene after the first conductor spools of niobium-titanium conductor—the raw material for the magnetic coils—are delivered to the ITER site. The delicate process of winding, impregnating with epoxy resin and assembling the giant magnetic rings of ITER should take about six years.
In the meantime, and as early as this summer, the installation will be fitted out with the necessary tools and equipment. The huge workshop won't remain empty very long ...
ITER's Cryolines to enter prototyping phase
p, 02/17/2012 - 17:46The ITER cryolines are a system of complex, multi-process, vacuum-insulated pipes ranging from 2 to 8 process pipes that connect cryogenic components in the Cryoplant and Tokamak buildings—some 3.5 kilometres in all. They form part of the ITER cryogenic system comprising the cryoplant, the cryodistribution system and a system of cryogenic lines and manifolds. The main function of this cryodistribution system is to provide helium at 4.5 K and 80 K to the machine's superconducting magnet system, the thermal shields and the cryo vacuum pumps.
On 30 January this year the Procurement Arrangement for the delivery of the cryolines system was signed by the Indian Domestic Agency with the ITER Organization. ITER India has complete responsibility for the procurement, installation and performance of cold acceptance tests for the ITER cryolines.
In order to validate the design and manufacturing of this complex system, a prototype test has been proposed by the Domestic Agency, which will be carried out on a short length 1:1 scale model. A dedicated laboratory for performing the tests is under construction at the Institute of Plasma Research (IPR) in Gandhinagar.
The two companies that have pre-qualified to participate in the tendering and manufacturing of the cryolines are M/s. Air Liquide Advanced Technologies from France and the consortium made up by M/s. INOX India Ltd., India and M/s. A S Scientifc Products, UK. The companies had already participated in the design of the prototype.
This article is largely based on inputs from Biswanath Sarkar, Project Manager for the Cryolines and Cryo-Distribution Systems, ITER-India.
Twisting and turning
p, 02/17/2012 - 15:07As part of ITER's in-vessel coil system, two Vertical Stability (VS) coils will provide fast control of the vertical displacement of the plasma. The circular VS coil situated in the lower segment of the vacuum vessel is the larger of the two, with a radius of 7.6 metres and a weight of 2 metric tons. The upper VS coil has a radius of 5.8 metres and weighs 1.6 metric tons.
The conductor inside of these coils—the largest of its kind ever—consists of a stainless steel jacket, magnesium oxide insulation, copper alloy to conduct current, and a water-cooling channel in the centre (also see Newsline 175 and 151).
While over the past months many discussions have taken place regarding the design of the VS coils, assembly engineers within the ITER Organization are facing a difficult challenge of their own: how to bring the bulky coil segments in through the port openings of the sealed vacuum vessel.
"We want to try to install the largest coil segments possible into the vacuum vessel to reduce the number of brazed joints to be performed on the inside of the vessel, reducing cost and schedule but more importantly increasing the reliability of the coils," explains Mechanical Engineer Brian Macklin. "The installation of the VS coils is one of the first activities to be performed after the welding of the vacuum vessel sectors. The target is to install three 120° segments. Alternatives include four 90° segments or pre-installation of the segments in the vacuum vessel sectors." However, pre-installation of the VS coils before the sector assembly is not the preferred option, because the coils would compromise the welding of the vacuum vessel. In addition, there is a risk of damaging the coil segments.
The current plan for the installation of the VS coils involves guiding 120-degree coil segments through the equatorial ports into the vacuum vessel. Once inside the vacuum vessel, the segments are to be assembled in a series of steps that include alignment, brazing, welding, non-destructive examination, vacuum-leak checking, pressure testing and electrical testing.
Easing the bulky coils into the vacuum vessel through small openings will be no easy task. Specially designed rails and handling fixtures will have to be installed to guide the bulky coils on their roller coaster ride through the port cell and the vacuum vessel port to their final destination. "I would liken the job to moving a couch into a new apartment—twisting, turning and rotating it as you climb up three flights of stairs and through several narrow hallways and a few really narrow doorways," says ITER mechanical engineer Ed Daly.
The challenge is now solved on paper: the drawings and models are finished and the objective of introducing the three segments seems feasible. But when dealing with the mechanics of assembling the world's largest fusion device you'd better double check your calculations.
That is why the ITER in-vessel coil, assembly, and integration engineers meet regularly these days in the small 3D theatre next to the Tore Supra Tokamak, where CEA/IRFM has set up a Virtual Reality Room. With the help of advanced 3D technology and simulations prepared by CEA in the framework of a contract with IO, the engineers can study the movement of the VS coil segments along their integration trajectory and identify potential clashes.
"And these assembly simulations are only one part of the story," says Jens Reich, engineer in ITER's Design Integration Section. "Thanks to its capability to show adjacent interfaces, this 3D tool has significantly improved the overall integration situation inside the tokamak."
"Another advantage of the Virtual Reality room is that we get a much better appreciation of the real size of the components,"adds Brian Macklin, "which is something we often forget as we look at models of huge components on our tiny CAD screens!"
Magnets: mega vs nano
p, 02/17/2012 - 15:03On the ITER side of the fence, you'll have the largest and strongest magnets in the world: some 14 metres high; some as heavy as a fully-loaded Boeing 747; some 24 metres in diameter. A stone's throw away, on the CEA-Cadarache side, their microscopic counterpart: no more than 50 nanometres in size (50 billionth of a metre!). Magnets by the hundreds of millions packed into one single drop of water.
The bulkiest among the ITER magnets, much too big to be transported along the specially adapted ITER Itinerary, will be assembled in a 257-metre-long building on site. CEA's nanomagnets are being produced naturally. Bacteria—not industry—are doing the job.
Magnet-producing bacteria are nothing new. Such microorganisms, called magnetotactic organisms, were identified and described some forty years ago. Like migratory birds, magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) biomineralize tiny crystals of magnetite, an iron oxide that acts as a built-in compass.
Birds and bacteria use this inner compass to orient themselves relative to the Earth's magnetic field. It allows birds to find their way to warmer climates and back, and bacteria to swim in one single direction rather than haphazardly, thus conserving energy in their quest for nutriments.
What is new, and what triggered several reports in science magazines throughout the world, is a double breakthrough: first, the identification of a new family of MTB that produces a different—and possibly more promising—type of nanomagnet for biotechnological applications (an iron sulphate named greigite); and second and even more important, the mastering of cultivation that could lead to mass production of MTB.
The excitement was justified. "With MTB, we have an object whose biological activity can be oriented by magnetic fields," explain David Pignol, head of Cadarache's Cell Bioenergetics Laboratory and Christopher Lefèvre, the post-doc researcher who discovered the greigite-producing bacteria and developed the cultivation method.
"We can imagine tweaking their DNA and transferring an extra biological function to their genome, such as the capacity to degrade pesticides or other toxic molecules. Then, we'll have the ability to guide this added biological function with a simple magnet."
The achievement was part of a larger quest that also involved Pr. Dennis Bazylinski at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas; researchers from the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); several universities in France, the US, Brazil and Hungary; and a group of scientists from the Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy.
Greigite-producing bacteria, which Christopher Lefèvre isolated in the brackish waters of Badwater Basin on the edge of Death Valley National Park (USA), could open the way to a wide field of application.
Genetically-modified MTB could be used for environmental clean-up or as intelligent contrasting agents in medical imaging techniques such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): NeuroSpin, a CEA research centre on neuroimaging, has begun exploring this technique on lab rodents and will soon extend it to monkeys. Cancer therapy is another potential application, by way of a technique called hyperthermia in which heated crystals could be directed to burn cancer cells.
The difficulty, until now, was to cultivate and eventually mass-produce MTB. "Christopher succeeded in mastering the cultivation process," says Pignol with pride. "It's a world's first."
The genome of the most promising of these magnetotactic bacteria has been sequenced and the bioreactors at CEA-Cadarache Institute of Environmental Biology and Biotechnology are now teeming with magnetic bacteria life.
"There is still a lot of work to be done in optimizing the cultivation method," adds Lefèvre. The challenge now is to turn the tame bacteria into mass producers—a difficult task but a highly promising prospect.
More information in The Scientist, ZeitNews and The National Science Foundation web sites.
Brrr...
p, 02/10/2012 - 21:44As bitter cold swept across most of Europe this week, France's electricity demand reached a record high of 101,700 megawatts (MW), equivalent to the total production of approximately 100 nuclear reactors. The previous record dated from 2010, when a peak of 100,500 MW was reached on 15 December.
The French power grid operator Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) feared a collapse, especially in the "weak" regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) and Brittany where production barely covers 90 percent of the local demand. The situation in the PACA region was particularly tense as electricity is transported by one single west-east 400 kV power line.
Fortunately, the collapse didn't happen as France hastily imported thousands of megawatts from neighbouring Germany.
As temperature falls by one degree Celsius, electricity demand in the whole of continental Europe increases by 5,000 MW—the equivalent of the combined consumption of Paris and Lyon.
France, with only 60 million inhabitants out of a population of 350 million continental Europeans, accounts for half of this added consumption. The reason for such "gluttony" is historical: when France decided to "go nuclear" in the late 1970s, authorities strongly promoted electrical heating in order to reduce imports of heating oil.
Now, some 35 years later, nuclear plants account for more than 75 percent of French electricity production; the French kilowatt is among the cheapest in Europe and about a third of French households depends on electrical heating exclusively.
Hence the "fragility" of the country in terms of electricity supply, when temperatures drop as they have since the first days of February.
Thirty-two years ago, on 19 December 1978, the failure of a 400 kV power cable in eastern France caused a general blackout that affected 80 percent of the country. Under the pressure of falling temperatures, demand for electricity had increased to 38,000 MW, caused the collapse of the power cable.
There's some simple math to do here: French population at the time was 53 million and the peak consumption per person on 19 December reached 720 W. Thirty-two years later, the French are 63 million and the overload threshold has been pushed to about 100,000 MW. In other words, peak electricity consumption per person on a very cold day in France is now 1,565 W.
In a little more than three decades, consumption has more than doubled...
Upgraded EAST starts experimental campaign
p, 02/10/2012 - 15:30With the advent of significantly augmented auxiliary heating and operational capabilities, the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), situated in Hefei, China, is starting this year's experimental campaign. The campaign aims at exploring the boundary and understanding the physics of the EAST operational space with favorable stability and confinement, and developing suitable means to expand this space toward steady-state operation.
To these ends, the campaign is focusing on ion cyclotron resonance heating (ICRH) and lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) physics, MagnetoHydroDynamics (MHD) and edge localized mode control (ELM), L-H transition and pedestal physics, divertor physics and emerging plasma-surface interaction (PSI) issues under long pulse operational conditions, and developing integrated scenarios that integrate high performance with advanced divertor steady-state operation.
For further information on the campaign and its organization, press here.
Click here for online submission of experiment proposals.
The A to Z on assembling ITER's largest components
cs, 02/09/2012 - 16:56It's the year 2015. Three thousand workers are involved in the construction of the ITER project in Cadarache, France. The civil works on the Tokamak Complex are nearly completed and the Tokamak Building—the highest feature on the platform—rises 60 metres into the air. Trucks come and go from the largest building on site where five of ITER's giant poloidal field coils are in various stages of manufacture ...
For six years, beginning 2012, the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility will house the progressive winding and assembly of ITER's Poloidal Field (PF) coils, the huge, circular coils that will be positioned horizontally around the toroidal field magnet system.
All but one that is. Of ITER's six poloidal field coils the smallest—the eight-metre PF1—will be procured by Russia and delivered to the ITER site. The five others are too large to be transported in their finished state: with diameters up to 24 metres, PF2, PF3, PF4, PF5, and PF6 will be manufactured under European procurement in the 257-metre-long Winding Facility.
Manufacture will take place in three sequential phases. From the reception of spools of conductor at the south end of the building to the exit of completed coils from the opposite end, the fabrication of each poloidal field coil will require at least 24 months.
Phase One: Winding - The raw material for the poloidal field coils is delivered on 20-ton spools from factories in China, Europe and Russia. Some 1,174 tons of Niobium-Titanium (NbTi) conductor will arrive at the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility in staggered deliveries between late 2012 and 2015.
Adjacent to the unloading area a climate-controlled "clean" enclosure is the theatre for winding operations. Lengths of NbTi conductor fed from two spools simultaneously ("two-in-hand" winding) are insulated and wound into a flat, spiralled coil called a double pancake.
"Starting from the conductor spools, two-in-hand double pancakes are wound, and insulated with glass-fibre tape", Byung Su Lim, PF Coil section leader at ITER, explains. "The winding speed must be synchronized with the speed of insulation wrapping and the tension of insulation tape controlled. The shaping of each termination (for connection one to the other) is performed after the completion of winding."
The total conductor lengths required for the winding stage of manufacture varies from 6 km for PF2 to 14 km for PF3. "The size of each double pancake depends on the dimensions of the final coil," stresses Lim. "Depending on the number of turns in each double pancake and the number of pancakes stacked to form the final coil, each poloidal field coil is unique." Thirty-nine double pancakes will leave the Winding Facility's assembly line over a six-year period.
Phase Two: Impregnation - For the second phase of operations, the double pancake windings are transferred by overhead bridge crane to the impregnation area in the centre of the Winding Facility. "The double pancakes at this stage are still considered 'light components,' weighing a maximum of 37 tons," says Lim. The cranes lower the double pancakes into moulds for vacuum pressure impregnation (VPI) with epoxy resin. The resin—acting inside of a sealed mould and under the effect of heat—hardens the glass tape to bond each double pancake into a rigid assembly.
Current passed through the conductor heats the double pancake to approximately 80 degrees Celsius—once hot it is put under vacuum. At the same time, the resin is put under vacuum, degassed, and heated to 80 degrees.
"The challenge during this phase is to distribute the resin in a uniform manner," explains Lim. "Pressure is our main ally: propelled by pressure from the lowest point of the double pancake, the resin reaches all areas before flowing out at the highest point. We'll leave plenty of time for the resin to wet the insulation completely and to avoid creating trapped bubbles in the winding."
Once impregnated, the double pancake is put first at atmospheric pressure and then at overpressure, and "cured" for more than 24 hours above 100 degrees Celsius.
Phase Three: Assembly: The resulting solid double pancake winding is transferred to the assembly area of the building where it is stacked and joined, a second vacuum impregnation is performed to harden the stacked assembly, and additional components added such as clamps, protection covers, and pipes.
The floor in this area of the Winding Facility has been reinforced for the exceptional weight of the final assemblies. "Eight double pancakes are stacked to form the winding packs for PF coils 1,3,4 and 5, an respectively six and nine double pancakes for the winding packs of PF 2 and PF6. That puts the completed coils—winding pack plus additional components—at between 200 tons and 400 tons," says Lim. "These massive components will exit the Winding Facility on self-propelled transporters."
The size and weight of the poloidal field coils are a particular challenge for manufacturing operations, according to Lim. "Manufacturing tolerance targets have been defined at 3-4 mm—a particularly challenging target for components that measure up to 24 metres in diameter."
Avoiding deformation during handling is also an issue. "At frequent intervals throughout the manufacturing process first the double pancakes and then the coils will have to be lifted and manoeuvred as smoothly and evenly as possible, with a maximum authorized tilt of 10 mm," says Lim.
A heavyweight crane located at the far end of the Winding Facility will have the capacity to transport loads of up to 100 tons (or 50 tons with its circular spreader beam attached). The final assemblies—which will surpass these limits—will be mounted on retractable pneumatic supports.
"At ITER, we are building some of the largest coils in the world," concludes Lim, who joined ITER after ten years at the KSTAR Tokamak in Korea where he oversaw the manufacture, assembly, installation and commissioning of the toroidal field coils. "It's especially exciting to be heading into the construction phase of poloidal field coils in earnest. All of our careful planning and teamwork is about to be put to the test. All of us—at ITER and at the Domestic Agencies—are looking forward to getting started."
Click here to watch a video produced by F4E on the PF Coil manufacturing.
Another quest for energy
sze, 02/08/2012 - 16:06The quest for energy goes back a long way in Cadarache. Long before the CEA nuclear research centre was established, men toiled in the deep and vast forest to produce a fuel of highly calorific power which they obtained by slowly "cooking" hardwood in the absence of oxygen.
Charcoal is among the purest forms of readily available carbon. Because it burns at intense temperatures of up to 2,700 degrees, it was for centuries the fuel of choice for the blacksmiths' forges, the glassmakers' and lime-burners kilns, and the ironmasters' furnaces of nascent industry.
From the Middle Ages until World War II, charcoal-makers, or "colliers," were familiar—although vaguely frightening—figures in the forests of southern Europe. Villagers were uncomfortable with their blackened faces, strange eating habits (didn't they feast on snakes and foxes?) and deep knowledge of the forest's secret resource. Villagers associated their craft, so closely linked with the mastery of fire, to the Devil's work.
Colliers, however, played an essential role in the development of local industries. In the 17th century, charcoal produced in the forest of Cadarache was burned in the kilns of the local glassworks, whose remnants were identified by archaeologists on the edge of the ITER site in the area where subcontractors now have their portacabin offices.
In the 1920s, some 50 charcoal-making families, most of them Italian immigrants from Piedmont and Bergamo, lived deep in the 2,200 hectare-forest. What they produced was sent all the way to Marseille to be used in furnaces and also as filter to purify drinking water.
"You can still see the traces left by the colliers' wood piles," says Alain Savary, the local National Forestry Commission (Office National des Forêts) representative and ITER's closest neighbour. "They are like perfectly circular clearings, some 15 metres in diameter. Nothing grows there: the soil underneath is totally burnt and sterile."
In his Maison Forestière, the large Forest Ranger's house he inhabits right across the road leading to the future Headquarters building, Savary has preserved some of the memories of the colliers of Cadarache forest.
Old photographs pinned to the wall depict the technique of wood-pile building, the transportation of charcoal by way of wooden "sleds," and the daily and quite primitive life of the charbonniers of Cadarache ...
Charcoal production in Cadarache seems to have ceased in the late 1940s, after a short revival during World War II. Motor engine fuel was scarce then, and charcoal was widely used in wood-gas generators to power private cars, buses and even tractors.
From approximately fifty thousand tons a year in the late 1930s, wood and wood charcoal production for such vehicles, called gazogènes, increased to almost half a million tons in 1943.
With the war over, the need for charcoal rapidly declined. In 1959, the best part of Cadarache forest (1,600 hectares over a total of 2,200) was sealed off to create CEA's nuclear research centre. In the quest for energy, the black-faced colliers gave way to engineers in white coats ...
Hands on remote handling
sze, 02/08/2012 - 15:56The European Domestic Agency F4E has signed a contract to receive engineering support over the next four years in the field of remote handling with OTL, Assystem UK and CCFE for a budget in the range of EUR 3.5 million.
Mechanical, electrical, electronic and control systems engineering linked to remote handling systems and components will be covered by the contract.
The work will be structured along the four packages for which Europe is responsible in this area: the divertor remote handling system; the cask and plug remote handling system; the in-vessel viewing system; and the neutral beam remote handling system. Furthermore, the framework contract could be used to verify the remote handling compatibility of other ITER systems like plugs and in-vessel components.
The scope of the contract is to support design and fabrication studies of remote handling equipment and respective systems; industrial evaluation of remote handling concepts and solutions in the areas of remote maintenance and decontamination; radiation tolerance assessments of components and materials; and the review of CAD models, technical specifications and safety evaluations.
The knowledge gained from the contract is expected to be complemented by existing and future grants in the area of remote handling when needed.
When ITER begins operating, inspections or repair of any of the tokamak components in the activated areas will be conducted by remote handling. Cutting-edge technology underpinned by precision and reliability will be necessary to manipulate and replace components weighing up to 50 tons.
Welcome, Mr. Tungsten Divertor
sze, 02/08/2012 - 15:45What do you expect to talk about when you plan for an interview with the newly appointed leader of the Tungsten Divertor Section? Tungsten? The tungsten divertor ? As if it were that easy ...
On 1 January of this year Frederic Escourbiac took over the Divertor Section from Mario Merola, who is now in charge of ITER's Internal Components Division. Frederic inherited a well-run house: four signed Procurement Arrangements, including those for the carbon fibre-reinforced carbon composite (CFC) targets facing the extreme heat at the very bottom of the ITER machine; the quality assurance program for all participating parties accomplished; and the preparation for the prototype manufacturing well under way. But then the "tungsten bomb" hit us, Frederic says, not sure if these words are politically correct. "But that was very much what we felt."
Driven by the urgent need to bring the project's costs down, the ITER management last summer launched an investigation into whether it was feasible to abandon the original Carbon Phase of the divertor and to implement tungsten right from the beginning of operations. The savings for the one-track-tungsten option would be in the range of EUR 400 million, as estimated by the procuring party, Europe. It was thus decided by the recent ITER Council, following the advice of the scientific and the management advisory boards, to delay the final decision on the specific choice of the divertor targets for up to two years and, in the meantime, focus the research and design activities on the tungsten option.
The soon-after rebaptized Tungsten Divertor Section took a pragmatic approach to the modified boundary conditions: first, they met in the nearby village of Vinon-sur-Verdon where they symbolically buried the carbon divertor, then they went back to the design codes and standards and drawing stations and faced the new challenge. And the full tungsten divertor is an engineering challenge, as Frederic explains. "Tungsten has the big advantage that it doesn't absorb tritium as compared to carbon. But at the same time, it does not offer the same forgiving behavior of carbon."
The stakes are thus high for Frederic and his team, but the engineer from the University of Toulouse, in his home town, is confident that they will develop a viable solution. And looking at his education, he has all the tools he needs at hand: his professional career started in 1995 at the IRFM, the fusion branch of the CEA in Cadarache that operates the French Tore Supra Tokamak. Within the framework of the CIEL (Inner Components and Limiter) project, he participated in the upgrade of all the internal components of Tore Supra.
Soon after, he became deputy section leader of the Plasma Facing Component Group. A job that prepared him well for his next move to another job which eventually lead him to the component at the very core of the ITER machine, the divertor.
In order to coordinate design development a Tungsten Divertor Task Force has been established, lead by Takeshi Hirai, responsible officer for the Outer Vertical Target Procurement within the Japanese Domestic Agency. The kick-off meeting for this Task Force is planned to take place 3 February. It will be helpful to come to a decision about which road to follow within the next two years: go for tungsten right from the start or start with CFC . "My concern is not the outcome of this decision," says Frederic. "It is more the question when to draw the line, when to make that choice. That will be the hardest decision I see ahead."
ITER all-staff meeting in year number five
sze, 02/08/2012 - 15:36With more than 700 staff including contractors, an ITER all-staff meeting is not easy to organize these days. And so it was a welcomed opportunity to move this New Year's reception to Osco Manosco, the newly built communal hall of the neighbouring city of Manosque. As host it fell to the city's mayor, Bernard Jeanmet-Peralta, to address the first words to the gathered crowd—and not without some faint irony: "Quelle machine infernale," Peralta yelled, holding his hands against his ears. "What a diabolic machine..." Of course the mayor wasn't referring to the ITER machine being built only a dozen kilometers to the south of his city, but to the sound system that was suffering from some "diabolic" acoustic feedback from the microphones.
Peralta was followed by Jean-Paul Clement, Director of the International School in Manosque which many of the ITER children attend. And then it was the turn of Osamu Motojima, the ITER Director-General, as well as the project's three Deputy Directors Rem Haange, Rich Hawryluk and Carlos Alejaldre to wrap up the achievements of the past year. Motojima compared the ITER project with a train that is picking up speed. "During the acceleration phase increased tension is appearing at the joints between individual cabins," he said, explaining that each cabin of the train stood for an individual element within the project.
It wasn't without satisfaction that Director Motojima pointed out that the project's Schedule Performance Index had increased markedly and that the Strategic Management Plan, developed during the year 2011 to minimize potential delays, was showing positive effects in keepting the project within the schedule and cost boundaries cemented by the ITER Baseline. "Today, the ITER budget is secured in all seven Member states," he continued. "Sixty-five Procurement Arrangements have been signed so far representing almost 75 % of the project's in-kind value."
So much for the project's status. With the first one hundred contracts coming to an end this year—year number five for the ITER Organization—and more contracts terminating in early 2013, there was genuine interest in the future staffing policy. Having answered a handful of questions on this issue by explaining management's approach, Director Motojima then opened the buffet where the Galettes des Rois, a traditional toroidal brioche, were waiting to be shared by all.
Seven Russian researchers to explore the ITER world
sze, 02/08/2012 - 15:19Seven young fusion researches and engineers from Russia arrived at the ITER Headquarters in France this week. Over the next 45 days they will work closely with engineers and scientists on site. Andrey Mednikov, for example, comes from the Efremov Institute in St. Petersburg where he will be actively contributing to the winding of ITER's Poloidal Field (PF) Coil # 1, the only coil out of six that will not be wound on site. During his time at ITER, Andrey will be supervised by Byung-Su Lim, the responsible officer for the PF coils within the Magnet Division.
Elena Popova, is a mechanical engineer working in the design office of the Russian Domestic Agency, also known as the "ITER Center." Elena comes to France to improve her skills in electrical engineering. She has joined the group working on the switching networks and DC busbars for the Coil Power Supply and will be supervised by Ivone Benfatto. Aleksandr Paramonov works at the All-Russian Scientific Research and Development Cable Institute (VNIIKP) in Moscow; he will be working with the ITER superconductor team led by Arnaud Devred, looking into conductor technology and conductor production.
Pavel Sergeev, also from the ITER Center in Moscow, is an IT-technician. Pavel's interests lie in understanding how the ITER scheduling team works, and how the system and its software are set up in order to improve implementation and usage of this same system, back home. Pavel is assigned to the Central Integration and Engineering Division and will be supervised by Stefano Chiocchio. Pavel Shigin comes from the National Research Institute MEPHI in Moscow; he will work in the physics group around Richard Pitts, looking into glow discharge cleaning concepts. Denis Kaverin who is also from VNIIKP will study superconducting cable technology and production.
And finally there is Nikolay Yukhnov from the company Nikiet based in the Russian capital. Nikolsy will investigate the attachment systems for the ITER blanket modules. "Any ideas to simplify the design are more than welcome," ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima said with a jovial smile as he welcomed the new co-workers this past Tuesday. "With this scientific exchange we hope to set a precedence which will be followed by other Domestic Agencies," Director Motojima continued, adding that "by fostering young generations in the field of fusion science and technology we will ultimately turn ITER into Center of Excellence. That is my goal."
Simplify and Improve(IT)²
sze, 02/08/2012 - 15:15The year 2011 was a whirlwind of activity for the Department for Administration in which we had the benefit of three Management Advisory Committee meetings, two ITER Council meetings, two Financial Audit Boards and—last but not least—the Management Assessment Review. The good news is that all the reviews recognized significant progress in how we are doing our work. But we can do better!
Therefore, in 2012 our overarching aim will be to improve the project's performance and efficiency. ITER has grown up from the ground and now the organization and infrastructure to deliver the construction project is established. The organizational future lies in completing the construction of ITER in a manner that is safe, and which offers best value for money by incorporating measures and processes for operational excellence.
That is why we have triggered a new initiative based on the value of simplicity with the goal of improving the project's efficiency. The key element of this initiative is to build on the knowledge and experience of our workforce. Everyone who works for and with us is encouraged to constantly look for opportunities to simplify our procedures and practices.
This new initiative is being identified with the anagram "Improve(IT)².'' Improve by continuously asking yourself if you can do something more simply and either do it or report it, while remembering to always:
• Be Impartial by being objective and making decisions based on unambiguous and defined rules;
• Take Individual responsibility and accountability for deliverables;
• Trust your colleagues (ITER Organization and Domestic Agency) to do a good job and don't duplicate their work; • Be a Team player by working early in the process to help your colleagues achieve success. Welcome your colleagues' help.
The ideas may come from an individual, team or group within the organization or from internal or external audit reports. So far as is possible, the improvements should be acted upon locally and communicated so others can learn from the improvement achieved.
Then how do we convey our ideas? With the help of IT and Communication we are currently establishing what we call an "Ideas Network": a technical platform that will enable us to receive and register your suggestions—and to reply to them—supported with management-led team communication. This network we hope to have up and running by the middle of this year. The time between now and launch is being invested in ensuring that we can respond efficiently and act appropriately to the suggestions received.
In the meantime, Colette Ricketts, who has contributed immensely to setting up this initiative, and I—together with the steering committee for this effort—look forward to suggestions and ultimately to improving ITER!
Legal framework for Test Blanket Modules converging
h, 02/06/2012 - 15:45ITER will provide a unique opportunity to test mock-ups of breeding blankets, called Test Blanket Modules (TBM), and associated ancillary systems in a real fusion environment. Within these Test Blanket Systems (TBS), viable techniques for ensuring tritium breeding self-sufficiency will be explored in the framework of the TBM Program.
The TBM Program has a special standing within the ITER research program in that the Test Blanket Systems are developed by the Members and remain the property of the Members ... even though they will be tested at ITER. It is furthermore an essential element of the common purpose of the ITER Members to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power for peaceful purposes.
That is why members of ITER Organization's management and delegations from the seven ITER Members came together in Cadarache this week, to discuss the generic "Test Blanket Module Arrangement." This Arrangement will be used as a template for the individual TBM Arrangements, which will govern the relationship between the ITER Organization and each Member during the development and construction of the Test Blanket Systems.
"The aim of the meeting was to converge on some outstanding issues in the definition of the template for the TBM Arrangements, so that the Members will have a common legal framework for working with the ITER Organization during the development and construction of the Test Blanket Systems," commented Luciano Giancarli, ITER responsible officer for the TBM Program.
They burn cables to prevent fires
h, 02/06/2012 - 15:41Safety is about anticipating aggressions, whatever their nature and their probability. An earthquake, a flood, an airplane crash, a fire breaking out inside the installation—all these are among the events that must be identified, analyzed and simulated prior to the designing of an installation.
Let's take a look at fire, for instance. It is of vital importance to know what material will burn and how fast; how the flames would propagate within an installation; what chemical elements would be released through the smoke; and how these releases would affect the filtration systems, etc.
In ITER, which is mostly concrete and steel, a "fuel of choice" was identified: the large amount of cables that wind and wiggle for dozens of kilometres in the innards of the installation, forming what Electrical Engineer David Beltran calls "the largest mass of combustible material available in ITER."
Not only do cables burn, they may propagate flames and induce other fires. "Cables are long; they run close to each other; they get into every corner of the installation ... In the absence of strong safety measures, they could spread a fire all over the facility," says David.
In order to take these strong measures, one has to know how different cables would behave in the different circumstances a fire would create. "We needed data, as precise as possible, to feed our simulation codes," explains Pierre Cortes, ITER Safety, Analysis and Assessment section leader.
All the cables in ITER will be of a particular type called "halogen-free" (or LSZH for Low Smoke Zero Halogen). In case of a fire and subsequent outgassing, they do not produce halogen elements like fluorine, chlorine or bromine that might harm some of the installation's systems.
"Unfortunately, R&D on halogen-free cables is scarce," says Cortes. "The solution was to perform the tests ourselves." And so they did, burning all sorts of cables: thick and thin, long and short, in an upright or lying position, with or without ventilation ...
The data acquired covered issues such as ignition temperature, heat release rate, smoke production, the nature of outgassed elements and the speed of propagation. Tests were conducted throughout the year 2011 in the world-class SATURNE and CARINEA installations (IRSN, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire) where all kinds of different fires can be recreated and their dynamics closely and precisely monitored. Both installations, quite conveniently, are located at CEA-Cadarache.
The tests that were performed also enabled the safety team to test the integrity and functionality of some of the safety-relevant cables under conditions of fire. The experience was both simple and spectacular: an electrical cable, feeding power to a lamp, was slowly devoured by the flames. How long would it hold? How long would the lamp keep shining?
The tests demonstrated that specific cables could retain their functionality—whether they carried power or signal—for quite a long time. Seeing the little light continue to shine as the cable sheath carbonized was an impressive sight indeed ...
Cortes and his team have now accumulated a large amount of data on cable behaviour, type by type, brand by brand, and in all imaginable situations. This is not, however, the end of the story. "The question now is to analyze this data in order to assess whether we should test specific firewall systems or other configurations."
One thing is certain: cables will continue to burn in the dedicated fire-test facilities in Cadarache in order to mitigate the consequences of their potential burning in ITER.
The next generation of fusion scientists
h, 02/06/2012 - 15:32Each year in February, students from French graduate universities within a federation called "Education for Fusion Sciences" regroup at Cadarache to follow advanced courses on frontline science and technology related to magnetic fusion. The master course aims to provide interdisciplinary knowledge and skills to scientists and engineers from France and foreign countries that are keen on studying in energy and fusion research programs, specifically within the framework of large projects, both in national or private laboratories.
This week, 25 students from the University of Nancy, universities from the Île-de-France area around Paris, and Marseille gathered in the amphitheatre of the IRFM (l'Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion Magnétique), the fusion branch of the CEA Cadarache that operates the Tore Supra tokamak, for the launching of this year's Master course. For the next four weeks the students will get the chance to gather knowledge on the physics and the technology of fusion—both in theory and by hands-on exercises. Scientists from both the IRFM and ITER will be engaged in teaching the next generation of fusion scientists and engineers.
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Helios supercomputer ready to bite the bytes
h, 02/06/2012 - 15:25The Helios supercomputer is operational according to schedule at the International Fusion Energy Research Centre (IFERC) hosted by the Japanese Atomic Energy Authority (JAEA) in Rokkasho. The machine, whose mission it is to perform complex calculations for plasma physics and fusion technology, has passed its acceptance tests achieving 1,132 Petaflop LINPACK [1] performance.
The Computer Simulation Centre (CSC), where Helios operates, is an important component of Europe's contribution to the Broader Approach, an agreement signed between Europe and Japan to complement the ITER project through various R&D activities in the field of nuclear fusion. The European participation to the Broader Approach is coordinated by Fusion for Energy. The supercomputer was provided by France as a part of its voluntary contribution to the Broader Approach, through a contract between the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) and manufacturer Bull.
The acceptance tests of the supercomputer were carried out between 13-22 December 2011 in Rokkasho, Japan. The tight construction schedule was successfully met offsetting any disruptions caused by the great East-Japan earthquake in March 2011. The installation of the equipment was completed in early December and by the end of the month a 1,132 Petaflops LINPACK performance was achieved, ranking Helios fifth in the TOP-500 November 2011 list.
The operation of the supercomputer will kick off with four high visibility runs ("light-house projects") which are expected to shed light on plasma calculations. From January to March 2012, the four selected codes will run one at a time to test drive the capacities of the supercomputer and achieve maximum performance. The first call for proposals has attracted high numbers of submissions from both European and Japanese researchers that are currently under review. It is expected that routine operation will start in April 2012.
Based on the number of proposals submitted to the first call, there has been an oversubscription by a factor of three of the computer's time, demonstrating the great interest from the European and Japanese fusion communities in the supercomputer facility. The majority of proposals address issues related to plasma physics (turbulence, MHD, edge physics and integrated modelling) together with an important number of proposals addressing technology issues.
[1] The LINPACK benchmark is a measure of a computer's floating point rate of execution. It is the performance parameter used to classify the TOP 500 list of supercomputers.