In the stepping stones paving the way to commercial fusion reactors, the last but one is "DEMO", a pre-industrial nuclear fusion reactor, building on the knowledge acquired with JET and ITER.
Ansaldo Nucleare (company of Ansaldo Energia Group) has been associated with the fusion development ever since the beginning and today is one of the most successful European companies of ITER Consortium, with, among other projects, the fabrication of the Vacuum Vessel key elements and its assembly at Cadarache Site. In this respect, continuing being involved in the definition of the future fusion reactor was to Ansaldo Nucleare the most natural step.
This is the case with this latest 4-year 10 Million Euro Framework Contract awarded by the European Commission, through the General Directorate for Research and Innovation, to the Consortium led by Ansaldo Nucleare with Spanish and German Partners, respectively Empresarios Agrupados Internacional and Framatome, for "Services of Expert Industrial Competences for the Pre-conceptual Design Activities of the European Fusion Demonstration Reactor (DEMO)".
The Contract, of which Ansaldo Nucleare stands for approximately 40% of total value, aims at an assessment of the nuclear fusion power plant physics and technology system architecture, overall configuration and system engineering processes. The Contract will provide services based on European industry-best practice in the area of:
- Power Plant Physics and Technology system architecture
- Overall plant configuration and system engineering processes, with a focus on plant design and technology options and feasibility
- Plant manufacturing options
- Specific component design
- Control system
- Project risk identification, evaluation and mitigation
- An evaluation of the impact on cost for the suggested solutions.
This project represents one step closer towards an infinite, clean and reliable energy for the generations to come.
