19 Mar (NucNet): Fusion for Energy (F4E), the organisation responsible for managing Europe’s contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) under construction in southern France, has signed contracts worth 40 million euros (EUR) (55 million US dollars) with Ferrovial Agroman of Spain.
F4E, which is based in Barcelona, Spain, said the two contracts are for the construction of buildings that will house various facilities. Work is expected to be completed in the next four years.
Under the first contract, Madrid-based Ferrovial Agroman will build two buildings for magnetic power conversion, each with an area of 4,900 square metres and a volume of 39,000 cubic metres. These buildings will house components which will transform alternating current into direct current to supply the magnets of the tokamak. The company will also build a smaller building for the reactive power compensation system, which is necessary for the electricity grid to function.
Under the second contract, Ferrovial Agroman will design and build the cooling tower and the hot and cold water basins, which will store the water needed to cool the reactor. Ferrovial Agroman will also build a set of buildings for cooling and water treatment systems.
These are not the first Iter contracts for Ferrovial Agroman. A consortium comprising Ferrovial Agroman, Vinci and Razel-Bec, both headquartered in France, has been building the tokamak complex, the main building that will house the reactor, and designing and building nine ancillary buildings.
Iter is under construction at the Cadarache nuclear site in southern France and is intended to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. It will be the world’s largest experimental fusion facility. Fusion is the process which powers the sun and the stars. When light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released.
The project is a first-of-a-kind global collaboration. Europe will contribute 45 percent of its construction costs, while the other six members to the venture (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US), will contribute equally to the rest. The total cost of the project has been estimated at EUR 15 billion.
