Phoenix rises to the ITER challenge

It's not easy containing a plasma at 150

C. Our Sun, fortunately, cannot keep energy to itself, even though it is 10 times cooler but scientists running the

(ITER) require a vessel that must not be breached if their research into nuclear fusion is to succeed.

Phoenix Inspection Systems of Warrington is designing and building ultrasonic non-destructive testing equipment that can be used to check the quality of the welds on the ITER vacuum vessel, where the high temperature fusion plasma will be held.

The doughnut-shaped vessel — 15m high and 25m diameter — will be made of nine segments of an austenitic alloy that will be joined either by tungsten inert gas welding or electron beam welding.

The challenge for Phoenix is to perfect testing equipment that can detect defects in such narrow gap welds and in metals that have coarse grain structure. And the job has to be done from within the finished vessel itself.