4 Jul (NucNet): A contract worth 40 million euros (54 million US dollars) has been signed for the design, manufacturing and commissioning of the high-tech remote handling system for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) under construction at Cadarache in France.
Fusion for Energy (F4E), the organisation responsible for managing Europe’s contribution to Iter, said the contract was signed with France-based Assystem. It will also involve other European pioneers from the area of remote handling such as the UK’s Culham Centre for Fusion Energy and Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd, and Finland’s Technical Research Centre and Tampere University of Technology.
Assystem said the contract, expected to run up to seven years, focuses on the plant’s divertor remote handling system.
The divertor is a key component of the Iter machine. Located at the bottom of the vacuum vessel, its function is to extract impurities from the plasma, in effect acting like a giant exhaust system.
Assystem said the system brings together high-tech robotics, advanced technological tools, powerful computers and virtual reality platforms.
