According to the official Weibo of China National Nuclear Corporation, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), the world's largest "artificial sun", officially signed a vacuum chamber module assembly contract with the Sino-French consortium led by CNNC Engineering.This is China once again assuming the task of installing its core equipment after successfully installing its heart equipment.
Vacuum chamber module assembly is currently the most important piece of equipment on the critical path of the ITER project and plays a vital role in the success of the entire ITER project.
The vacuum chamber is shaped like a donut, but due to its huge size, in order to facilitate installation,The entire vacuum chamber is divided into nine vacuum chamber modules, but the vacuum chamber module itself is also a three-layer sandwich structure. From the inside to the outside, there are 40-degree vacuum chamber sectors, vacuum chamber cold screens and toroidal field coils.
The assembly work of the vacuum chamber module that won the bid this time is just like putting on clothes. The vacuum chamber cold screen and toroidal field coil are integrated and assembled on the vacuum chamber sectors in the assembly hall, and then the whole is hoisted into the tokamak pit. The 9 sectors of the vacuum chamber module are completed and delivered separately. The total planned installation period of the 9 sectors is 35 months.
It is reported that the International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor Project is designed to simulate the nuclear fusion process of sunlight and heat, and explore the commercial feasibility of controlled nuclear fusion technology.
The International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor is a tokamak that can produce large-scale nuclear fusion reactions. It is known as the world's largest "artificial sun" and is jointly implemented by China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.