The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world. It aims to demonstrate the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free energy source. This monumental effort to recreate the power source of our sun here on Earth is a collaboration between 35 nations, including the European Union and the United States. These members contribute to the project’s construction, operation and scientific research.
What Is the Project?
The ITER project aims to construct a nuclear fusion test plant, TOKAMAK, dedicated to investigating scientific principles and technologies that will allow nuclear fusion to become the world’s primary source of energy. ITER involves many parties in collaboration, and each will contribute components or services to the project. The project is focused on obtaining controlled thermonuclear fusion in an industrial-sized plant.
Where Is It Located?
The ITER facility is in Southern France in Saint-Paul-lès-Durance, located near the Cadarache nuclear center. Construction has been underway on the 180-hectare site since 2007, and reactors are scheduled to be online in 2034. The central facility is the Tokamak Building, which began preparation work in 2010. Other facilities include cooling towers, electrical installations, a control room, waste management facilities and a cryogenics plant. The challenging civil engineering works are largely completed now, allowing the complex manufacturing to begin.
The region is an intellectual hub for the nuclear power industry, with the town of Cadarache hosting the largest technological research and development center for nuclear energy in Europe. The French Commission for Atomic and Alternative Energies is located there, and it has one of the heaviest concentrations of specialized scientific staff in the world.
How Does It Work?
TOKAMAK is based on the concept of magnetic confinement, in which plasma is contained in a doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel. The method has been established as a concept since the Cold War era, when the ITER project was first conceived as a joint effort by international leaders. The fusion process involves two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, heated to temperatures of more than 270 million F (150 million C, 10 times hotter than the temperature at the core of the sun), forming a hot plasma. Strong magnetic fields keep the plasma away from the walls, produced by superconducting coils surrounding the vessel and by an electrical current driven through the plasma. The heat produced through proper heat exchangers (steam generators) could allow electric power production by a standard turbo-alternator group (not in the scope of ITER).
Pumping Systems Supply for a Key Plant System
A pump OEM was recently awarded a contract to supply the eight main pumps that provide cooling water to the five cooling loops of the integrated blanket, edge localized mode (ELM)/vertical stability (VS) and divertor primary heat transfer system (IBED PHTS) during different modes of operation.
The IBED PHTS provides cooling services by supplying demineralized water to the plasma-facing components (blanket modules and divertor cassettes) within the vacuum vessel. It also provides cooling water to the ELM and VS coils and the various clients in the upper, equatorial and lower ports. The IBED PHTS supplies cooling water to five cooling loops (three first wall/blanket loops, one divertor loop and one equatorial port loop) via a set of eight main pump/heat exchanger trains. It is designed to provide the primary confinement for activated corrosion products (ACPs) and tritium entrained in the cooling water outside the IBED PHTS clients and maintain leak-tight integrity during operation.
Scope of Work
The scope of the supply includes not only engineered pumping systems but also key electrical auxiliaries:
- Eight pumping trains, each composed of a horizontal multistage, between a bearing pump (American Petroleum Institute [API] 610 BB2-type), an electric motor and a double mechanical sealing system with barrier system and additional leakage collector, all installed in the main skid
- Eight electrical and control cabinets installed in separate heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) areas, each composed of a variable frequency drive and a vacuum circuit breaker
- A common equipment, composed of a unit control panel, to control the above systems; a low voltage motor control center to feed the low voltage auxiliary motors associated with the supply; and an automatic refilling unit to supply barrier fluid to all the sealing systems
The pump trains are designed based on American Petroleum Institute (API) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, also following the Design and Construction Rules for the Mechanical Components of Pressurized Water Reactor Nuclear Islands (RCC-M and RCC-E) and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) guidelines for qualifications and design.
It is estimated the engineering activities will take around 18 months to complete, with all manufacturing and testing activities requiring at least 24 months.
Challenges
- Space constraints: The pumps will be installed in predefined and spatially constrained areas. These constraints apply to the overall dimensions of the pump skid and control panels and the positioning of the main interfaces, including the location of suction and discharge flanges, baseplate anchoring points and cable entry routes. This arrangement is primarily dictated by the facility’s unique configuration, which requires the designers to allocate the equipment to a specific location due to the prioritization of other containment and structural components.
- Aggressive environment: The pumping units will be installed within the protective shield, thus operating in an exceptionally harsh environment characterized by exposure to neutron flux and intense magnetic fields. Although the control panels included in the scope of supply will be located outside the shield, they will still be subject to residual radioactive and magnetic fields. These environmental conditions have a significant impact, particularly on the electrical and instrumentation components and nonmetallic materials.
Approach & Solutions
The supplier has been involved in the ITER project since 2019, with the supply of the integrated vacuum vessel primary heat transfer system (VV PHTS) primary pumping system, which provides cooling water to the VV PHTS. This pump is in the project’s last phase after a successful factory testing campaign.
From the proposal stage of the project, specific attention was given to spatial constraints and the aggressive operational environment, with a thorough analysis of potential solutions supported by preliminary calculations and simulations to ensure optimal performance from the earliest design stages.
Auxiliary equipment was selected with emphasis on electronic components—especially those sensitive to radioactive and electromagnetic fields—and on elements classified within the project as safety important components (SIC), for which additional verifications were performed to ensure compliance with the relevant safety requirements.
Looking Beyond: Rival Fusion Projects Around the Globe
As ITER progresses toward its 2034 operational goal, other fusion projects worldwide are exploring alternative technologies and timelines to achieve their breakthroughs in fusion energy.
The U.K.’s involvement with the ITER project ended after the country left the EU and the Fusion for Energy project, with the U.K. government opting to pursue alternative projects in fusion. The U.K.’s Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak (MAST) upgrade project at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy is experimenting with a more compact spherical tokamak configuration, which could offer efficiency advantages in containment and scalability. The project is focused on solving the challenge of exhaust heat management and magnetic confinement. Current heat divertors are not viable for commercial applications due to the extremely high temperatures they endure, which cause them to need replacement every few years. However, MAST has successfully demonstrated the Super-X divertor, which may reduce the wear on reactor walls—a significant hurdle in sustaining fusion reactions.
The U.S. has invested in private-sector fusion ventures such as Commonwealth Fusion Systems and TAE Technologies. These companies are racing to commercialize fusion using approaches like high-temperature superconductors and field-reversed configurations.
China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) has recently achieved world-record plasma temperatures and is another major national effort aligned with ITER goals. Similarly, Japan’s JT-60SA, built in collaboration with Europe, complements ITER’s objectives and serves as a test bed for integrated tokamak operation.
With a range of projects underway, the next decade will be a crucial time for nuclear-ready suppliers as project managers race to secure procurement and hit their deadlines.
