|
SRNL to assist in fusion reactor energy project
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
The Savannah River National Laboratory has been tapped to participate in ITER, an international program that seeks to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion power reactor.
Currently there are seven parties participating in the ITER program: the European Union, the United States, Japan, Russia, India, China and South Korea. The project is being constructed in Cadarache, France.
The U.S. ITER program office, located at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., selected SRNL, along with Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, as partner laboratories for the project.
SRNL, the applied research and development laboratory at the DOE’s Savannah River Site, works in the areas of energy security, national and homeland security, and environmental management.
“SRNL’s experience and expertise in large-scale tritium processing systems and its track record of effective project execution form a unique combination that is key to the success of this unique project,” said U.S. ITER Project Manager Ned Sauthoff.
ITER, Latin for “the way,” is designed to advance worldwide availability of energy from fusion, the power source of the sun and the stars. The project will involve the construction of a machine known as a “tokamak” for the production of fusion energy, followed by about 20 years of operation of the tokamak for research, development and experimental validation.
Working in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, SRNL’s role in the project will be the design, fabrication, assembly, testing and shipment of the Tokamak Exhaust Processing system, a critical element in the overall project.
The TEP is estimated to be an eight-year project, with a cost of about $60 million. Initial activities will focus on international safety and licensing, computer modeling of the process and design support.
“SRNL’s participation in this important international project builds on the laboratory’s decades of work with hydrogen and its isotopes, deuterium and tritium,” said SRNL Laboratory Director G. Todd Wright of Washington Savannah River Company. WSRC, a subsidiary of Washington Group International, operates SRNL for the Department of Energy.
“For half a century, we have been providing the applied research and development to support the Savannah River Site’s production and handling of tritium for use in the nation’s defense,” he said. “That same expertise will help the international community take a giant step forward toward this exciting new source of clean, renewable energy.”
SRNL also will provide support to the French Nuclear Regulatory Agency, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, and will join the ITER International Team in Cadarache to work on safety and licensing activities.
Starting in 2010, the components of the TEP will be assembled, tested and shipped to Cadarache. Experimental operations in Cadarache are planned to begin in 2016.
“The Savannah River National Laboratory has been designated as a ‘national laboratory’ for only a couple of years,” said G. Todd Wright, laboratory director of Savannah River National Laboratory. “For us to be asked to contribute to this important international effort is a real recognition of the vast expertise that we have developed over the decades in hydrogen and its isotopes.
“For many years, SRNL has worked internationally, but our participation in ITER is a wonderful opportunity for us to step up onto the international stage in a big way that helps advance the world’s development of much-needed new energy sources.”
Fusion energy is an important component of President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative, particularly with fusion’s potential as a long-range option for the U.S. clean energy portfolio. In fiscal year 2006, DOE allocated $25 million to ITER, and the president, as part of the AEI, has requested $60 million for U.S. ITER support in fiscal year 2007.
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version