19 Apr (NucNet): The design of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) blanket system, a crucial technology on the way to fusion power, has been approved and is ready to proceed to the manufacturing stage.
“The development and validation of the final design of the ITER blanket and first wall technology is a major achievement on our way to deuterium-tritium operation – the main goal of the ITER project,” said Rene Raffray, who in charge of the blanket for the ITER Organisation. “We are looking at a first-of-a-kind fusion blanket which will operate in a first-of-a-kind fusion experimental reactor.”
The ITER blanket system provides the physical boundary for the plasma and contributes to the thermal and nuclear shielding of the vacuum vessel and the external machine components such as the superconducting magnets.
Directly facing the ultra-hot plasma and having to cope with large electromagnetic forces, while interacting with major systems and other components, the blanket is arguably the most critical and technically challenging component in ITER, a statement said.
ITER, under construction in the south of France, is designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. Seven partners – China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US – have pooled their financial and scientific resources to take fusion energy to the threshold of industrial exploitation. The completion of construction is expected in 2020.
Details online: www.iter.org/publicationcentre.
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