Evektor participating in the development of currently the largest fusion reactor in the world

Evektor spol. s r.o. in cooperation with French company Soditech will continue on the development of the largest fusion reactor in the world.

Since January 2009 Evektor´s engineers, along with their colleagues from all over the world, have been working on ITER project in French Cadarache. This project has the objective to develop and construct an experimental fusion reactor which will be able, as the first in the world, to generate more energy than it consumes on its operation. The history of ITER project dates back to the year 1985 when France, Great Britain, former Soviet Union and the USA jointly suggested foundation of an international project which should deal with the use of thermonuclear fusion for peaceful purposes. Currently, besides EU, USA and Russia several other countries from all over the world, including India, China and South Korea, are involved in this project. The reactor itself has a chance to offer a clean and effective source of electrical energy to the world.

Evektor´s engineers currently perform stress analysis support within the scope of the department of magnets. The superconducting coils forming magnets represent the heart of the whole system. The operation conditions jointly with acting forces present a challenge from the point of view of structure design which must be sufficiently flexible owing to temperature deformations and at the same time strong enough to transfer the forces originating from interactions between the TOKAMAK magnetic field and the electrical current in coils. The system of wires feeding the coils and tubes distributing supercritical helium is no less important. With regard to operation conditions when wires go from normal outside environment to working environment of coils with vacuum and temperature near absolute zero, the design of proper wires and supporting structure is one of the challenges which need to be dealt with. The appropriate calculations exceed the scope of one field because electromagnetic and thermal analyses go before the appropriate strength check. The structure design must take into consideration the TOKAMAK location in a seismically active area.

ITER project currently enters the phase of production preparation. New objectives and work focus of our engineers are linked with it. Calculation activities will be gradually reduced and the new focus concerns above all check of production procedures, check of prototype production and suggestion and supervision over tests of functionality of partial assemblies in operation conditions.

“Evektor company is, thanks to this cooperation, significantly expanding the range of its activities also in the area of power industry and brings unique know-how to the Czech Republic, which presents a big advantage due to the ever-growing demand for electric energy and anticipated development of other facilities functioning on the principle of nuclear fusion,“ adds Ladislav Chybík, the head of Evektor Stress Analysis Department in Kunovice.

For more information about the project look at: www.iter.org .

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