Reliability studies for the Joint European Torus (JET) experimental reactor
UK
The Joint European Torus (JET) is an experimental nuclear fusion reactor operated by the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy (CCFE) at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) site in Oxfordshire, UK. The operation of JET is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation and managed by the EUROfusion consortium. JET was built in the early 1980s and has been operating since then, carrying out fusion energy experiments and studies.
The JET machine is a large tokamak device with a diameter of about 15 metres and a height of 12 metres. At the heart of the machine is a toroidal vacuum vessel in which plasma is confined by a magnetic field generated by large D-shaped coils surrounding the tokamak.
JET is capable of producing pulses of hydrogen plasma at temperatures of millions of degrees. Achieving such high temperatures requires intense heating in a short time.
Each JET pulse consumes about 10 GJ of energy, with peak power requirements exceeding 1000 MW. This amount of power cannot be drawn from the UK National Grid, so two massive flywheel generators have been constructed to provide the additional power required. The rotating part (rotor) of each generator is 9 metres in diameter and weighs 775 tonnes.
CCFE has been contracted to conduct a second Deuterium-Tritium Fuelled Experiment (DTE2) using JET in 2017 to support technical developments for the ITER project. To manage the risks of delay or early termination of the project, CCFE adopted a Risk Based Inspection (RBI) process to identify the systems that could affect the successful execution of DTE2 and, in turn, through a risk assessment process, identify those systems or components that require mitigation actions to minimise these risks.
IDOM was appointed to provide engineering services for these studies, covering the various support systems that support the operation of the reactor.
