| GLOBAL NUCLEAR


Engineering the future of energy


Immense technical challenges include temperatures ten times higher than the centre of the sun


Above: ITER night view Image courtesy of ITER Organization


IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE, the ITER machine is taking shape. ITER aims to be the first nuclear fusion reactor to produce more energy than is required to power its plasma. If it can overcome some immense technical challenges, it’s no exaggeration to say that its success will change the world by opening the possibility of harnessing the nuclear reaction that powers the sun to create an almost limitless supply of clean energy here on Earth. The fusion reaction, generating temperatures of up to 150 million degrees Celsius, will take place inside a doughnut- shaped chamber, or tokamak. Jacobs is part of the Energia consortium, responsible for


project management of the 400,000-tonne ITER tokamak complex and its 30 operational systems on behalf of Fusion for Energy (F4E), which leads the European Union contribution to the ITER project. Jacobs is also part of the MOMENTUM joint venture, which


is the construction management-as-agent contractor at ITER, responsible for coordinating the assembly of more than one million components in the fusion machine. Jacobs’ contribution to ITER includes the design and


prototyping of the first wall panels which are necessary to protect the tokamak when the plasma reaches temperatures ten times higher than the center of the sun; complex analysis and safety case development for the test blanket


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modules, which are an essential part of breeding tritium to fuel the fusion reaction; the remote handling system for maintaining the neutral beam injectors, which heat the reactor’s fuel and whole plant nuclear integration, focused on maintenance and minimising related operator exposures. Jacobs is also developing and supplying technology to monitor for corrosion and direct support to the development of the detritiation system, diagnostics systems and control and instrumentation systems. Jacobs leads the European Remote Handling Alliance,


a co-operative group of companies responsible for the design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of the Neutral Beam Remote Handling System. Three heating neutral beam injectors heat the plasma by firing a stream of neutral (uncharged) particles into it at a tangent. Exposure to radiation means that the injectors will become highly activated, so internal maintenance and repairs will need to be carried out remotely. This work draws on expertise in remote handling and


robotics which Jacobs developed during engineering projects in support of the U.K.’s fleet of advanced gas- cooled reactors. Tritium and deuterium are two isotopes of hydrogen that will be used to fuel the fusion reaction in ITER. While deuterium can be extracted from seawater in virtually


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