— What is going on now in the ITER project?
— Several building have been erected on the site. In the main reactor building the concrete foundation was built, on which walls are erected. Eight floors; half of them are underground. This will make care and maintenance easier at a later time. The approach of the construction phase is an important milestone. We passed the design, manufacture and prototype testing phases.
— Construction is apparently behind the schedule. Why?
— Because it is a unique, very complex build. One thing is to draw a project on paper and another thing is to approach the industry with it, which gives actual timeframes and prices. Moreover, ITER is a nuclear facility in the territory of France, 500 MW of power capacity. Such construction is linked with multiple tier approvals and controls. One more factor is that there are 34 participating countries. Everything has to be agreed upon with everyone; nobody should be offended. As a result, the time of decision-making gets longer and this is quite natural. By the way, there are no problems with Russia’s work. We fulfill everything we tasked with without substantial delays.
— What is the Russian share in the project?
— The Russian share is 9.09%. It consists 90% of the equipment and 10% of funds for assembling and installation of the equipment and salaries of the personnel. The scheme is nearly similar for all participants. Russia makes 25 systems.
— What equipment is most complex of what Russia is making?
— The most complex is the diagnostic equipment. Take a mirror for optical diagnostic. It is installed near the first wall and faces plasma, which has temperature of 300 million centigrade. The mirror system is built along the broken optical path, which we call a dog-leg; it should transmit plasma light to detector, which is in the shadow. How to make a mirror, which will function under high radiation level, when defects accumulate in the crystallographic structure of the matter? Our scientists designed the mirror and SPA Luch in Podolsk fabricated it out of single-crystal molybdenum of 160 cm in diameter. This is the first development of a kind in the world! We have made superconductors, which nobody has made before. It is an extremely complex cable made of wires of less than 1 mm in diameter, with each wire containing several hundreds of conducting fibers.
As to the process systems we are challenged with upper nozzles. Here, the uniqueness is in the structural material, stainless steel, welding techniques. Russia makes 40% of the first wall panels of the reactor, which is the most energy-stressed component. To this end, a special beryllium production process has been set up.
Now, we are at the design completion stage of many of the systems. In some cases we have already started manufacturing and testing prototypes. More than 80% of superconductors have been supplied to the European company, which makes coils.
Generally speaking, everything that is made for ITER is unique and higher than the world class. Therefore, ITER supports development of science-intensive technologies.
— What ITER developments can be in demand in other industries?
— Superconductors are used in medical imaging machines. By the way, the works in Glazov finished production of superconductors early 2015. After closing down this program, the company offers the country all its capacities.
The beryllium lining for the reactor first wall can be used for spacecrafts and refractory systems. Diamond detectors produced for spectrometry of neutrons and fast atoms in ITER can be used in dose measurements, beam therapy to model the absorption profile of ionizing radiation dose by human body.
Besides, it is worth noting that the participation in the work on ITER, supplies of the equipment for the technological platform of future energy generation is also an advertisement for any company. In essence, your product is on display at the standing exhibition of achievements of the world technology leaders.
— Are the Russian specialists enough for the work on ITER?
— The staff of the International Organization ITER is 565 people. With the contribution of 9.09 % our participation in the project could have been at the level of 50 specialists but now about 30 people work there. The problem is that there is a shortage of highly skilled physicists, engineers, technicians in this area in Russia. Certainly, we could have sent more specialists to France but who would make systems for ITER in Russia then? As a rule, in our case the task forces are formed around two-three key specialists and departure any of them is extremely undesirable. We ask leaders to bring up alternates to have an opportunity to invite someone to Cadarache. And the more Russians are there, the more of them will come back to Russia to build our own machine.
— You mentioned the Russian fusion reactor. Is there a new project?
— I am confident that Russia has to develop an internal controlled fusion program of its own. A large-scale, deserving Russia facility is needed. Academician Yevgeny Velikhov said that a hybrid reactor is our next step. The perspectives have to be turned into a real process.