ENGINEERINGNET.EU – The engineering company Air Liquide has secured two contracts to build extreme cryogenic systems for the ITER and the related JT-60SA research projects on fusion. The total value of these equipment sales contracts will reach over €100million.
Based near Marseille, in France, the ITER project plans the creation of an experimental reactor intended to illustrate the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion. This process generates little waste and eliminates any risk of reactor runaway.
To obtain the very powerful electromagnetic fields necessary to confine fusion, superconducting magnets must be used, which only work at extremely low temperatures.
For this project, Air Liquide will provide the biggest centralized refrigeration system ever built. This cryogenic equipment is essential for maintaining an extremely cold temperature for the 10,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets used on the Tokamak.
This sophisticated scientific instrument confines the plasma that makes it possible to achieve the conditions necessary for controlled fusion. The closed circuit refrigeration system is based on the properties of liquefied helium, whose temperature is close to the lowest possible temperature 0 K, or -273°C, called "absolute zero".
Between the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2017, Air Liquide will install three refrigerators for a global cooling capacity of 75 kW at 4.5 K, or - 269 °C.
The purpose of another project, JT-60SA, is to support the ITER project's research activities by working on the capacity to control and maintain the plasma for several hours.
JT-60SA, based in Japan, is designed to optimize plasma configurations for the ITER project. It is led by the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency in collaboration with the French organisation CEA. For this project, Air Liquide will commission, in 2015, a helium refrigeration system, intended to cool the Tokamak.
François Darchis, Senior Vice-President: "After the CERN's LHC and Kstar in Korea, these projects once again prove our capacity to meet major scientific challenges by supplying very high tech systems."
