Fabrication of tokamak cooling water system piping is now underway at Schulz Xtruded Products in Robinsville and Hernando, Mississippi (US), with management oversight by the US Domestic Agency and the ITER Organization.
The Schulz Group of Companies began manufacturing of the first supply order of nuclear grade stainless steel piping for the tokamak cooling water system in November 2016. This initial batch, which represents only a small amount of the total 36 km of piping, serves to confirm that manufacturing procedures and processes are in place for compliance with the French Orders on nuclear pressure equipment.
US ITER, managed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is responsible for the design and fabrication of the tokamak cooling water system, while the ITER Organization is under contract to US ITER for the completion of the final system design and piping procurement.
The tokamak cooling water system will have the capacity to remove up to a gigawatt of heat from ITER systems. The cooling system also provides capabilities that are not used in power plants, such as baking and drying in-vessel components, leak detection, and tokamak maintenance.
