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  • Fusion world | Japan and Europe inaugurate largest tokamak in the world

    It was 6:00 a.m. in La Bergerie, a former sheep barn located a few kilometres from ITER in the vast Château de Cadarache domain, and that had been converted [...]

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  • Stakeholders | ITER Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida

    In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and [...]

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  • Image of the week | Season wrapping

    Although the travel distance is short, barely exceeding one hundred metres, the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #8 from the Assembly Hall, where it is presentl [...]

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  • In memoriam | Bernard Pégourié, physicist and mountaineer

    The worldwide fusion community mourns Bernard Pégourié, of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (CEA-IRFM), who passed away on 25 November following [...]

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  • COP28 | Fusion is making a splash

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, opened on 30 November in Dubai's Expo City—a sprawling conference centre built two years ago for the W [...]

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Of Interest

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ITER NEWSLINE -

"Topping out" RES cooling towers

Work on the Nuclear Propulsion Test Reactor (RES) began in the mid 1990s and should be complete by 2012. © CEA / Le Senechal (Click to view larger version...)
Work on the Nuclear Propulsion Test Reactor (RES) began in the mid 1990s and should be complete by 2012. © CEA / Le Senechal
The development of nuclear propulsion reactors for the French Navy was one of the main reasons why CEA-Cadarache was established in 1959. Half a century later, it's the fourth generation of nuclear boilers that is being developed there.

Work on the Nuclear Propulsion Test Reactor (RES) began in the mid-1990s and should be complete by 2012. A research installation more than an actual prototype, RES will act as support for the French nuclear fleet and contribute to the training of their officers. It will also test new fuels and new core architectures, validate computational models and simulations, and qualify new concepts.

In July 2005, the reactor's 820-tonne containment system was assembled on site and moved into the reactor building, using 36-wheel transport platform similar to the ones that will deliver the largest ITER components to the ITER site. Less than two years later, the reactor vessel was inserted into the containment system.

Following construction tradition, a small tree was placed last week on the roof of the concrete structure that will host the RES atmospheric cooling system. © CEA / Le Senechal (Click to view larger version...)
Following construction tradition, a small tree was placed last week on the roof of the concrete structure that will host the RES atmospheric cooling system. © CEA / Le Senechal
Next to the main building, work is ongoing for the concrete structure that will host the atmospheric cooling system. These "cooling towers" will dissipate the residual energy from the reactor. Last week, as work on the tallest part of the structure was completed, a small tree was placed on the roof and hung with garlands—a construction tradition that originates in Eastern Europe and is called "topping out."

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