Global engineering specialist Amec Foster Wheeler said Tuesday it will lead a team of firms that will study the optimum means for decommissioning the ITER fusion device now being built in southern France.
The yearlong project will encompass “a concept-level study of the duration, sequencing and cost for dismantling the ITER machine, once it comes to the end of its life in 2042,” according to an Amec Foster Wheeler press release.
The other team members are French engineering consultant EAI Ingénierie and Germany-based NUKEM Technologies Engineering Services.
Amec Foster Wheeler also secured two separate contracts from the ITER Organization, the release says: one for development of a design work plan and information for contamination control and decontamination; the other covering conceptual design and engineering for a remote-control cutting and packaging system for cutting down on waste volumes.
The company did not cite the value of any of the contracts.
“These contract wins underline our leading expertise in conceptual design, engineering, technical specifications, remote handling and planning for decommissioning,” Greg Willetts, vice president for consultancy for Amec Foster Wheeler’s Clean Energy business, said in the release. “They take us further towards our aspiration to play a major role in developing future nuclear technologies while continuing to support the existing nuclear fission power industry.”
The ITER Tokamak — an experimental magnetic device intended to demonstrate that fusion can produce significant levels of carbon-free energy — is the largest of its kind. The project is a partnership of China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.
The facility is projected to cost 20 billion euros to build, with Europe bearing nearly half the cost and the remainder split between the other partners, World Nuclear News reported. First plasma is scheduled for 2025, with deuterium-tritium operations to follow a decade later.
