Reactor consortium

UK companies have formed a consortium to bid for construction of the main reactor vacuum vessel of the €5bn (£4.6bn) International Tokamak Experimental Reactor (ITER) nuclear fusion reactor being built in France.

Korea and Europe will build ITER’s vacuum vessel, which will be made up of nine 450-tonne D-shaped cross-section vessel sectors.

Europe’s role will be to provide seven of the nine vacuum vessel sectors with the remaining two to be supplied by Korea. Contracts for the vessel are expected to be placed during 2009 and 2010.

The assembled structure is expected to be 11.3m high with fabrication tolerance for the structure at less than 20mm for height and width. Once completed, the vacuum vessel, including shielding and port structures, will weigh more than 5,000 tonnes.

The UK consortium is being led by Davy Markham, a specialist in the fabrication and machining of large structures, precision fabricator Metalcraft and engineering consultancy AMEC. Davy Markham and Metalcraft have worked together previously on projects at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.