"The fourth and final ITER vacuum vessel sector manufactured by South Korea has been delivered to the construction site of the tokamak fusion device in Cadarache, southern France.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor's (ITER's) plasma chamber, or vacuum vessel, houses the fusion reactions and acts as a first safety containment barrier. With an interior volume of 1400 cubic metres, it will be formed from nine wedge-shaped steel sectors that measure more than 14 metres in height and weigh 440 tonnes. The ITER vacuum vessel, once assembled, will have an outer diameter of 19.4 metres, a height of 11.4 metres, and weigh approximately 5200 tonnes. With the subsequent installation of in-vessel components such as the blanket and the divertor, the vacuum vessel will weigh 8500 tonnes.

Each vacuum vessel sector is manufactured in four segments, requiring more than 1.6 kilometres of welding for assembly. Maintaining precise tolerances of less than a few millimetres ensures the seamless integration of internal components, which demands advanced forming and welding technologies.

The fabrication of the vacuum vessel sectors is shared between Europe (five sectors) and South Korea (four sectors). Initially, South Korea was tasked with producing two vacuum vessel sectors under its agreement with the ITER Organization. However, in 2016, an additional agreement was made to produce two more sectors originally assigned to the EU.

Starting with the delivery of the first sector in 2020, South Korea has now completed all four sectors, fulfilling its commitment to this significant international project.

"Korea has also delivered superconductors, thermal shields, and assembly tools to ITER on schedule, steadily contributing to the development of fusion reactor technologies and supporting efforts toward the realisation of fusion energy," the National Research Council of Science and Technology noted.

The fourth and final sector was produced at Hyundai Heavy Industries' shipyard in Ulsan. After leaving Ulsan on 24 August, the load travelled around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent and sailed north to the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Mediterranean Sea. It was delivered to the ITER site on 8 November.

Of the nine vacuum vessel sectors required to form the tokamak's toroidal plasma chamber, five are already present on site. The first sector produced by Europe was recently delivered to the site. In the ITER Assembly Hall, two sectors are being assembled into modules that will be installed later in the assembly pit. Another is undergoing repair in the former Cryostat Workshop, where two other recently arrived sectors have just been stored.

ITER is a major international project to build a tokamak fusion device designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. The goal of ITER is to operate at 500 MW (for at least 400 seconds continuously) with 50 MW of plasma heating power input. It appears that an additional 300 MWe of electricity input may be required in operation. No electricity will be generated at ITER.

Thirty-five nations are collaborating to build ITER - the European Union is contributing almost half of the cost of its construction, while the other six members (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the USA) are contributing equally to the rest. Construction began in 2010 and the original 2018 first plasma target date was put back to 2025 by the ITER council in 2016. However, in June this year, a revamped project plan was announced which aims for "a scientifically and technically robust initial phase of operations, including deuterium-deuterium fusion operation in 2035 followed by full magnetic energy and plasma current operation"."

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/korea-completes-delivery-of-iter-vessel-sectors

Is the dream of nuclear fusion dead?

Why the international experimental reactor is in ‘big trouble’

It was a project that promised the sun.

Researchers would use the world’s most advanced technology to design a machine that could generate atomic fusion,
the process that drives the stars
– and so create a source of cheap, non-polluting power.

That was initially the aim of the ️International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ️
( #Iter ) which 35 countries
– including European states, China, Russia and the US
– agreed to build at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance in southern France
at a starting cost of $6bn.

Work began in 2010, with a commitment that there would be energy-producing reactions by 2020.

Then cost overruns, Covid, corrosion of key parts, last-minute redesigns and confrontations with nuclear safety officials triggered delays that
mean #Iter is not going to be ready for another decade,
it has just been announced.

Worse, energy-producing fusion reactions will not be generated until 2039, while Iter’s budget
– which has already soared to $20bn
– will increase by a further $5bn.

Other estimates suggest the final price tag could rise well above this figure
and make Iter
“the most delayed and most cost-inflated ­science project in history”,
the journal Scientific American has warned.

For its part, the journal Science has stated simply that Iter is now in “big trouble”,
while Nature has noted that the project has been “plagued by a string of hold-ups, cost overruns and management issues”.

Dozens of private companies now threaten to create fusion reactors on a shorter timescale, warn scientists.

These include #Tokamak #Energy in Oxford
and #Commonwealth #Fusion #Systems in the US.

“The trouble is that Iter has been going on for such a long time, and suffered so many delays,
that the rest of the world has moved on,” said fusion expert Robbie Scott of the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council.

“A host of new technologies have emerged since Iter was planned. That has left the project with real problems

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/aug/03/is-the-dream-of-nuclear-fusion-dead-why-the-international-experimental-reactor-is-in-big-trouble?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other