ITER is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world today. It is based in southern France, where 35 nations are collaborating to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars.
The experimental campaign that will be carried out at ITER is crucial to advance fusion science and pave the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow. ITER will be the first fusion device to produce net energy, to maintain fusion for long periods of time and to test the integrated technologies, materials, and physics regimes necessary for the commercial production of fusion-based electricity.
The bFUS group at IREC has started a new collaboration with ITER in the field of Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ECRH) with the nomination of Oriol Nomen as ITER Project Associate (IPA) within the Electron Cyclotron (EC) Section. IREC will provide mechanical and manufacturing engineering support for the next coming four years in the detailed development of the Upper Launcher and Ex-Vessel Waveguides Systems of the ECRH. The ECRH is one of the three sources of external heating that will provide the input heating of hydrogen gas in the ITER machine to a temperature about 10 times that of our Sun. The ECRH is based on high-frequency electromagnetic waves.
Recently, ITER has gained notorious media relevance with the Start of Assembly achievement and celebration held on 28 July 2020. We invite you to explore the ITER website for more information: http://www.iter.org.
