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Japan’s Toshiba Corporation has signed a contract to manufacture toroidal field coils for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, which aims to demonstrate a viable means of generating power from nuclear fusion.
The company said it would begin manufacturing coils for ITER, as the project is known, at the end of May. The ITER facility will have a total of 18 coils and is hoped to initiate plasma experiments in 2020. Toshiba has been commissioned to manufacture four toroidal field coils, and six containers to hold the coils, with deliveries scheduled to being in 2017.
The coils are used to produce strong magnetic fields that confine the high-temperature plasma necessary for nuclear fusion to occur. Scientists from all over the world are working at ITER to harness the energy produced by the fusion of atoms to help meet mankind's energy needs. It is a large-scale scientific experiment intended to prove the viability of fusion as an energy source, and to “collect the data necessary for the design and subsequent operation of the first electricity-producing fusion power plant”, ITER said. Reactor construction has begun in Cadarache, southern France.
The ITER agreement was signed by China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States. The members will see the reactor through a 10-year construction phase, and its 20-year operational phase, before decommissioning. In Cadarache, southern France, ITER construction has begun on the scientific facilities. Manufacturing of components for ITER is underway in components all over the world, including the UK.
Thermonuclear fusion occurs in high temperature deuterium-tritium plasma at the order of 100 million degrees Centigrade, and the heat produced by the fusion reaction is used to generate electricity. Because the source of nuclear fusion fuel is abundant in nature, thermonuclear fusion, once proven, has the potential to provide a boundless source of energy.
Toshiba has long been involved in the research and development of nuclear fusion technology, participating in design activities and supply of equipment. The company has manufactured equipment, such as coils and power supply systems, for the JAEA Naka Fusion Institute’s JT-60, the National Institute of Fusion Science’s Large Helical Device and for other institutes in Japan and overseas. In March 2014, Toshiba delivered sectors of the vacuum vessel for JT-60SA, a successor to JT-60. “Toshiba will continue to leverage its technologies to contribute to the research and development of leading-edge technologies,” the company said.