The new chief executive of the program warns that delays will have financial consequences.
The international nuclear fusion project Iter, which aims to disrupt energy production, will face delays that have yet to be determined due to several critical parts failing, its chief executive said. Already, the date of the first production of plasma, essential for fusion, initially planned for 2025, cannot be held, explained Thursday to AFP Pietro Barabaschi, new director general.
He was appointed in September to lead this international research project which brings together seven partners: China, South Korea, United States, India, Japan, European Union and Russia. These incidents will also have a financial impact. “We need to redo our plans to minimize additional costs,admitted Pietro Barabaschi, without making any precise figures at this stage.
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“We have two problems,he explained. First, gaps of up to two centimeters were discovered on parts that need to be welded together to form the “vacuum chamber», gigantic loop in the shape of an air chamber where the fusion reaction will take place. Three of thesesectors“, already arrived on the Iter site, in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, in Provence (south of France) are concerned. One of them has even already been installed in the pit in which the experiment is to take place and will have to be removed.
Second defect noted, traces of corrosion on the “heat shieldswhich must protect against the very high heat emitted during fusion. This could lead to leaks of the helium used in the cooling circuit. These repairs will delay the project. “It’s not a process that takes weeks, but months or even years.“, explained Pietro Barabaschi, who must develop a new schedule of operations by the end of the year.
The development and implementation of this new schedule will be scrutinized by the French Nuclear Safety Authority, which pointed out “a lack of safety culture“During his inspections of Iter, told AFP Bastien Lauras, head of the ASN Marseille division. The independent administrative authorityconsiders that Iter did not take sufficient measures to deal with these deviations (on the welding points) at the right time and in particular to prevent them from recurring in the “sectors” still under construction“, he regretted. Iter is expected to reach full power in 2035.
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