Engineering support for ITER civil engineering analysis

France

ITER aims to demonstrate that nuclear fusion can be a viable future energy source. The project has a budget of €15 billion and is jointly funded by China, the USA, India, Korea, Japan and the European Union. Within the framework contract “Support in the field of civil engineering and structural analysis” (F4E-2008-OPE-011), several activities related to structural analysis for the design, optimization and approval of the ITER nuclear buildings have been carried out since 2009 for the three lots involved.

Within Lot 1, IDOM carried out seismic analyses of three main components: Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating (ICRH) antenna, Test Blanket System (TBS) pipeline supports and the Tokamak machine globally.

For Lot 2, the work was related to explosions and impacts, while for Lot 3, analyses were performed on ITER buildings (including the Tokamak building). This work involved extensive finite element modelling and analysis using CATIA, ANSYS and ABAQUS to perform a variety of non-linear calculations. A series of experimental tests of deformable and rigid bodies impacting reinforced concrete slabs at high speeds were numerically studied in order to use the actual test results for validation.

Fusion