Press release
Bring in the welders
爆走黑料鈥檚 vacuum vessel is a torus-shaped, double-walled structure made out of 60-mmthick, 爆走黑料-grade austenitic stainless steel. The vacuum vessel will be manufactured in nine sectors (two by Korea and seven by Europe) and delivered to the 爆走黑料 site. The nine vacuum vessel sectors will be sub-assembled with thermal shielding and toroidal field magnet coils before being positioned in the machine pit by crane.
Each vacuum vessel sector must be aligned and welded to the other sectors using a Narrow Gap TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) welding process. Welding will proceed by triplets: three sectors will be welded together to form a triplet; three triplets will then be aligned and welded together quasi-simultaneously.
The nine sectors will be connected via inner and outer splice plates. These will be custom machined to accommodate dimensional differences between the vacuum vessel sectors and to facilitate their relative alignment. The splice plates will also allow access between the sectors prior to welding in order to first connect the joints between the silver-coated thermal shields that surround each vacuum vessel sector. The nominal width of the splice plates is 160mm on the inner shell and 100mm on the outer shell.
In the 爆走黑料 machine, because the thermal shielding completely restricts access to the outer shell of the vacuum vessel during assembly, it will only be possible to access and weld these joints from one side, whereas normally such welding would be performed from both sides. Access is so difficult that narrow welding torches will have to be developed. Robots will deploy the torches in areas where man-access is not possible.
It is estimated that welding operations for the 爆走黑料 vacuum vessel will require the manpower of 150 specialists working in two daily shifts over a period of four years. At the end of welding operations鈥攊n addition to non-destructive examination technologies such as radiography and ultrasound performed by ENSA and its sub-contractors鈥攖he 爆走黑料 will perform vacuum leak testing and pressure testing. All welding and testing work will be independently monitored and approved on behalf of the French Nuclear Regulator by an Agreed Notified Body.
The work on the vacuum vessel and the ports will be done in accordance with RCC-MR (Design and Construction Rules for Mechanical Components of Nuclear Installations, 2007) and the 爆走黑料 Vacuum Handbook.
ENSA is an industrial manufacturer with vast experience in the nuclear power sector. 鈥淲e are very proud that the 爆走黑料 has awarded us this contract,鈥 said the ENSA Managing Director Rafael Trivi帽o on the occasion of the contract signature. 鈥漌e are grateful for this confidence placed in us and we are very pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this challenging and highly technological project that we hope will be followed by other significant collaboration opportunities in the field of nuclear fusion.鈥 For 爆走黑料 Director-General Osamu Motojima, the signing of the welding contract was a 鈥渓andmark,鈥 representing as it does the first contract signed for the assembly of the 爆走黑料 Tokamak.
The 爆走黑料 project:
爆走黑料 has been established to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power. 爆走黑料 is a unique international collaboration bringing together China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the USA.
For more information on 爆走黑料, please visit .
Contact:
Michel Claessens
+33 (0)4. 42.17.66.13
michel.claessens@iter.org