Energy of the future: assembly of the experimental ITER reactor started in France with the participation of the Russian Federation
In the French commune of Saint-Paul-le-Durance, the process of assembling the first-ever thermonuclear reactor ITER has started.This large-scale project brought together several countries at once. Russia, the USA, China, Japan, India, South Korea and a number of European countries mobilized their best specialists and offered the latest developments in this area. On the part of Russia, many scientific organizations participate in the ITER project.Specialists from NPO GKMP LLC make a special contribution to the development of the project. "GKMP" Research & Production Company” LLC has a successful long-term experience in the development, manufacture and supply of the most complex equipment, incl. for the modernization of the thermonuclear fusion unit Tokamak T-15, etc. And all this for the common good. After all, the ultimate goal is to create a unique, practically inexhaustible source of energy.The official ceremony, which took place online on July 28 at the Cadarache Research Center, was attended by French President Emmanuel Macron, representatives of the countries participating in the project, and a tour of the site was led by ITER Director General Bernard Bigot.
ROSATOM Director General Alexey Likhachev read an address to participants prepared by President Vladimir Putin. “Russia is one of the founding countries of this initiative that aims at making a significant contribution to ensuring energy security of mankind and plays an active role in its implementation. The ITER Project is based on the concept of the Tokamak facility invented and developed in our country. Despite the restrictions due to coronavirus, we managed to maintain an uninterrupted pace of work. This gives us good ground to expect the project goals to be achieved on schedule, and in the foreseeable future we will receive a source of energy that is unique in its power and safety; the operation of which will undoubtedly contribute to solving sustainable economic development goals and improving the quality of life of millions of people.”
The project is comparable in scale to the construction of the International Space Station and the Large Hadron Collider. Each of the 35 participating countries has committed to the production and delivery of certain components to the Cadarache research center in the south of France. Russia's contribution is one of the most significant. Moscow is responsible for the creation of 25 key high-tech systems.
ITER is an experimental reactor that is supposed to reproduce the physical reactions taking place on the Sun and other stars, and to show the possibility of using the potential of nuclear fusion as a source of electricity. Despite all the restrictions associated with the coronavirus, all installation work begins on time, so the launch of the reactor and the receipt of the first plasma on it should take place in five years.
Head of the Russian Domestic Agency ITER Anatoly Krasilnikov, in his interview to Russia 24, emphasized: “Russia's most important contribution is the idea. Tokamak - toroidal chamber, magnetic coil. The tokamak plasma confinement system was invented and proposed in the Soviet Union at the Kurchatov Institute, and this is our main contribution. That is, all cooperation, the whole world is building a reactor in the concept proposed by our scientists. "
Russia participates in the project in several formats at once: financial contributions to the budget of the International ITER Organization are provided; manufacturing and delivery of 25 systems of the most complex high-tech equipment (9% of the cost of building a reactor according to the technical design) is being implemented; the project employs Russian personnel seconded to the ITER International Organization. The implementation of work on the ITER project supports scientific and engineering teams at Russian enterprises, forms cooperation with other institutes and organizations, and also provides training for highly qualified specialists at a number of universities (MEPhI, MIPT, NSU,Saint Petersburg State University, Moscow State University, and others).
All obligations of Russia and Rosatom are fulfilled on time and in full. To date, all obligations for the manufacture and delivery of 22 km of toroidal field conductors and 11 km of poloidal field conductors to the ITER International Organization have been fulfilled. There will also be supplied equipment in the field of power supply systems, which has no analogues in the world market; 4 rigs - stands for testing equatorial and upper port plugs; PF1 poloidal magnetic field coil (one of six poloidal field coils of the ITER magnetic system). All 18 upper nozzles of the ITER vacuum chamber must also be supplied (classified as equipment for working with radioactive materials under pressure); equipment for electron-cyclotron heating of current generation plasma (8 gyrotrons 170 GHz / 1 MW, which are one of the key elements of the ITER); 9 diagnostic systems for measuring a wide range of plasma parameters during the operation of the ITER installation; 179 most energy-intensive (up to 5 MW / m2) panels of the first wall and connectors for blanket modules; a number of port plug-ins for diagnostic equipment; switching equipment.
The assembly of all components is expected to be completed by 2025. The new reactor is an attempt to prove that a thermonuclear reaction can be used to generate energy on an industrial scale. And this will allow us to come close to solving the problem of global warming.
© Photo: ITER
© The structure where the tokamak will be installed. Archivephoto
© President Macron spoke at the ceremony via a live link with the Élysée Palace. Photo: AFP
©The ceremony marking the start of the machine assembly of ITER, the international experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, has taken place online.
©Фото: ITER
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ТВ:
https://www.vesti.ru/video/2209258
https://lenta.ru/news/2020/07/28/iter/
https://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/20207282252-gbV5o.html
https://www.tvc.ru/news/show/id/188943
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https://tass.ru/ekonomika/9068593
https://nauka.tass.ru/nauka/9066719
https://ria.ru/20200728/1575041757.html?in=t
https://www.interfax.ru/world/719323
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https://rg.ru/2020/07/28/vo-francii-nachali-sobirat-pervyj-termoiadernyj-reaktor.html
https://www.gazeta.ru/business/news/2020/07/28/n_14727373.shtml
