Following the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in Japan in March 2011, the European Union declared "that the safety of all 143 nuclear power plants [in Europe] should be reviewed on the basis of a comprehensive and transparent risk assessment." These assessments are known as stress tests.
 
As the first fusion reactor to undergo full nuclear licensing, ITER will also have to pass this complementary safety assessment, In the words of Licensing Officer Joëlle Elbez-Uzan, the stress tests are "a targeted reassessment of ITER's safety margins in the light of the events that occurred at Fukushima."

"What this means, is that we will look into the resistance of the facility in the face of a set of extreme situations leading to the sequential loss of the ITER lines of defence—irrespective of the probability of this loss. In other words, we are imagining the unimaginable."
 
The type of extreme situation under examination: very severe flooding, a severe earthquake beyond that postulated in the ITER safety case, or a combination of both. "Special focus will be given to our crisis management plan describing how to react in such an extreme situation," explains Joëlle.
 
As a first step, the French regulator (Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire, ASN) asked the ITER Organization to draft a report describing the methodology by which the stress tests will be performed. This report was sent to Paris on 15 January and the methodology has been approved.

Currently the Safety, Quality & Security Department is carrying out its stress test evaluation and the outcome will be submitted to the authorities mid-September.

From May 21-25, a very successful Plasma-Surface Interactions (PSI) conference was held in the historic city of Aachen, Germany, which houses Roman baths and is known as "The Emperor's City" due to its status as Charlemagne's favourite place of residence.

The conference, which is held every two years, focuses on the region of the fusion plasma that is closest to the inner wall of the containment vessel, exploring both how the wall is affected and how the plasma responds to the release of wall material. Approximately 400 people came from all of the ITER Member countries, with the number of participants quadrupling since 1980, reflecting the importance of plasma-surface effects in high-performance devices like ITER and fusion power stations.

ITER is considering changing the wall material from carbon to tungsten for the areas that receive the highest heat loads. The conference was very timely in that many of the presentations discussed the properties of tungsten, from melting and gas trapping to less familiar effects caused by plasma exposure such as the formation of bubbles and nanostructures on the surface. 

Of particular note was the presentation of initial experimental results from the ITER-like wall that was recently installed in the JET Tokamak. The wall tiles are made from tungsten and beryllium, and are arranged in a way that is similar to the ITER design. There was quite a bit of good news, including fuel retention levels consistent with the ITER requirements and the production of clean, high performance plasmas. 

Other topics covered included heat load control, plasma transport, and computer simulations, as well as a look to the future with respect to advanced wall materials, novel magnetic field designs, and reactor requirements.

The final presentation was a lively retrospective by Volker Philipps from Forschungszentrum Jülich that celebrated the 40-year history of the conference and highlighted progress that has been made in the field. The conference location moves between North America, Europe, and Asia; Kanazawa, Japan was announced as the next host city.

Read the conference's official press release here.

Nearly all of the heat generated during ITER operation, whether it be from the fusion reaction, auxiliary systems, electrical cabinets, (or even warm bodies!) will be collected by the component cooling water system (CCWS) or the chilled water system (CHWS). These systems subsequently reject the heat to the atmosphere, either directly or via ITER's heat rejection system (HRS).

Although the CCWS and CHWS systems use standard, proven technology, the design of the systems is highly complex. The systems will serve a wide variety of clients, all with different requirements and with designs at different levels of maturity. Approximately 200 unique interface documents are required to define the CCWS and CHWS interfaces with clients, buildings, and services. 

The design and procurement of these systems is under the responsibility of the Indian Domestic Agency. On 11-14 June, the preliminary design review for the CCWS and CHWS cooling water systems was held in Cadarache, gathering representatives from the ITER Organization, the Indian Domestic Agency, and experts in the field. One of the experts was Warren Curd, former ITER Cooling Water Section leader, who travelled from China where he is currently a construction coordinator for two of the first Westinghouse AP1000 reactors to be built.

Sekhar Basu, chief executive at the Department of Atomic Energy in India, was chairman of the Design Review. During a meeting of the review panel on the final day, he received a phone call informing him that he had just been appointed Director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India's premier nuclear research facility based in Mumbai. This announcement was greeted with a spontaneous round of applause and congratulations from the panel members.

One of the important topics discussed during the review was the approach taken to seismic design of the system piping that will crisscross the site and be installed in nearly every building. "While the analytical approach we took was satisfactory, this meeting gave participants the opportunity to ensure agreement on assumptions and inputs so that safety, regulatory, and investment protection goals are met," says Prashant Wani, project engineer for Tata Consulting Engineers, who performed preliminary design on behalf of the Indian Domestic Agency.

A few other key issues, inherent to this stage of design, were identified during the review. Following the resolution of these issues and one last review of interfaces, the next step will be for ITER-India to launch a call for tender to select an engineering and procurement contractor to perform final design and procurement of piping and equipment.

The first shipment of piping is due on site in the summer of 2014.

Before long, ITER will have its own facility in which to organize its all-staff meetings—a 500-seat amphitheatre in the new Headquarters Building. For now though, the hospitality of the CEA meeting room René Gravier is essential: on Tuesday 12 June, close to 400 ITER employees gathered in two consecutive sessions in the Salle Gravier for a meeting with senior management. 

Director-General Osamu Motojima updated the staff on the recommendations of the recent Management Advisory Council in preparation for the upcoming ITER Council meeting (20-21 June in Washington DC). He also spoke of the status of the ITER Project schedule and the near-term challenges the project is facing. His talk was followed by presentations from senior management members Sachiko Ishizaka, ITER Council secretary; Rem Haange, director of the Department for ITER Project; Joo-Shik Bak, chief engineer; and Rich Hawryluk, director of the Department of Administration, each highlighting some of the specific challenges within their respective areas of responsibility.

The all-staff meetings were followed by animated question-and-answer sessions during which management and staff exchanged views and opinions.

Can solar energy provide the entire world's electricity? Should we abandon nuclear power after Fukushima? How much energy do we save by installing windows with double glazing? The Energy Survical Guide is a reliable source for all those who want to know the facts.

The author is Jo Hermans, professor emeritus of physics at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, who has lectured on energy and environment topics for decades. Jo has dedicated this book to his grandsons David and Thomas and those of their age around the globe "who are the heirs to our successes and failures in making this world sustainable."

A book about energy would not be complete without mentioning nuclear fusion and by looking both at its advantages and its disadvantages. His conclusion: "The enormous potential of nuclear fusion means that it is worth pursuing research and development by all means."

The "Energy Survival Guide" is published by Beta-Text in cooperation with Leiden University Press, ISBN 978 90 8728 123 6. The hardcover is €24.95 - 184 pages. For discount on larger orders please contact BetaText: info@betatext.nl