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Page added on March 12, 2014
ITER fusion reactor power supply contract awarded
The power supply for the ITER nuclear fusion reactor’s electron cyclotron heating system will be designed by a Swiss company.
Fusion for Energy (F4E), the organisation managing Europe’s contribution to ITER, has signed a contract with Ampegon to design, manufacture, install and commission the power supplies for the systems that will help heat the reactor’s plasma to 150 million degrees Celsius, nearly ten times the temperature at the core of the sun.
During the next six years, Ampegon will work to deliver 8 out of ITER’s 12 main high voltage power supplies that will operate at 55kV/100A and 16 body power supplies that will operate at 35kV/100mA.
Josef Troxler, Ampegon CEO, said: “The power supplies are a critical element of the machine. We are proud to offer our expertise and be amongst the companies that will build the world’s largest fusion project.”
The electron cyclotron will operate like a powerful microwave oven – a high-intensity beam of electromagnetic radiation at a frequency of 170 GHz, the resonant frequency of electrons, will transfer energy to the plasma, raise its temperature and drive additional current to sustain longer discharges.
The precision of the electron cyclotron will help scientists to target specific plasma areas that require an extra blast of heat to minimise the build-up of certain instabilities that lead to cooling of the plasma and maintain plasma confinement and stability.
The power supplies main role will be to transform the electricity from the grid to regulated direct current and voltage that ITER will need to generate electromagnetic waves, and the system will also have to be designed to shut down in less than 10 micro-seconds as a safety precaution.
Professor Henrik Bindslev, F4E Director, said: “ITER offers a vast range of business opportunities to small, medium and larger companies. Today’s signature proves yet again that SMEs have a role to play to the most ambitious international collaboration in the field of energy.”
7 Comments on "ITER fusion reactor power supply contract awarded"
andya on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 3:04 am
Fusion; always good for a laugh.
Just hook the electron cyclotron up to the flux capacitor and beam me up scotty.
Anything that requires heating to ten times the temperature at the core of the sun (LOL) sounds like an energy sink to me.
meld on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 11:03 am
“150 million degrees Celsius”
sounds easy, let me know in 20 years when no doubt some other small detail will have cropped up that makes fusion on any scale less than the size of Jupiter impossible
steveo on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 3:53 pm
“electron cyclotron heating system”
That sounds like something from a Warner Brothers cartoon with Marvin the martian. Do they use illudium to make it?
kervennic on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 5:41 pm
These guys are real modern genious: to manage to drain so much public money and for such a period of time with a dodgy pseudo scientic mega project. Even the catholic church did not go so far.
The level of public ignorance is so deep, even among so called scientist, that there is no need to burn heretics any longer. Just ignore them.
steam_cannon on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 9:05 pm
> “electron cyclotron heating system”
> That sounds like something from a
> Warner Brothers
>
I think its an appropriate name since all reactors are heating systems.
> Anything that requires heating to ten
> times the temperature at the core of
> the sun (LOL) sounds like an energy
> sink to me.
>
That’s that such an unusual amount of energy and pumping a plasma with microwaves is pretty easy, search youtube for “candle microwave”.
The hard part is getting fusion to happen and produce more energy then you put in. But it looks like some fusion laboratories have achieved breakeven. So there’s no good reason to be overly negative about fusion, it’s difficult but real progress is being made.
Quote: “Scientists have now designed the next-step device—ITER—which will produce more power than it consumes: for 50 MW of input power, 500 MW of output power will be produced.”
http://www.iter.org/sci/beyonditer
Fusion Reactor Breaks Even
http://hardware-beta.slashdot.org/story/13/10/07/2352217/fusion-reactor-breaks-even
Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24429621
Meld on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 9:41 pm
You nailed if Kervennic, this is just a quasi religious narrative to keep the “special ones” in position whilst they work for our “salvation”. The parallels between many scientific institutions and the churches of old are so numerous I can’t even begin to understand why people can’t see it.
I have no issue with science or spirituality at all. The scientific method is a fantastic tool that has been used since the dawn of man (under a different name of course@) and spirituality is a fantastic path for those that want it. Scientific institutions on the other hand are so similar to religions now that I cringe when someone seems to think anything that comes out of these places is in any way trustworthy. A few more centuries of unchallenged power and they will probably be fiddy kiddling as well.
rollin on Wed, 12th Mar 2014 9:59 pm
If they ever get the other four power supplies, we might find out if it works.
Personally, I think it would be a lot cheaper to learn how to modify humans so they don’t need all this stuff.