Spanish companies obtain more than 340 million euros in contracts under ITER programme

Since 2008, Spanish companies have obtained more than 350 contracts under the ITER project, for an amount in excess of 1.2 billion euros. These contracts, of great complexity and a high technological value, have been won on a competitive basis, in a highly qualified and competitive international market. It should be noted that the level of general return of Spain in the ITER project is well above Spain's contribution according to its GDP.

The success of Spanish companies in this programme is a key and strategic aspect that underlines Spain great industrial capacity to take part in the production of one of the energies of the future.

In addition, Spain has been working for some years now to host the IFMIF-DONES in Escúzar (Granada), a fundamental installation in the European fusion roadmap that will serve to qualify and validate the materials to be used in future fusion reactors.

Technological challenge

The search for efficient, safe energy sources that respect the environment to store the growing energy demand from today's society is one of this century's main challenges. In this regard, nuclear fusion, a process that also exists inside the sun and the stars, presents itself as one of the alternatives with the greatest chance of success in the near future.

The seven partners that take part in the ITER project are the European Union, Japan, the United States, India, China, Russia and South Korea, which signed an agreement to build this experimental nuclear fusion reactor which seeks to prove the technological and scientific viability of fusion energy for peaceful ends.

To test this viability, a series of highly complex tests will be performed inside its installations, located in Cadarache (France), which seek to produce, in a controlled environment, the burning of magnetically confined plasmas at 150 million degrees.

Through Fusion For Energy (F4E) - a European Union body commissioned with managing the European ITER tenders - Europe is financing 45% of the construction of this international project, with a total estimated cost of around 25 billion euros.

This body, located in Barcelona, has a workforce, primarily made up of scientists, engineers and administrative staff, of which some 32% are Spanish.

Spanish companies - successful bidders

In 2020, Spanish industry was awarded some very important contracts in the fields of first wall materials, assembly of vacuum chambers and Tokamak and civil works systems and components. It also won contracts for instrumentation and oversight; precision mechanics; Tokamak monitoring systems; the acquisition and oversight of data systems; electronic components, computer-assisted design (CAD) and power sources.

Noteworthy among the successful bidders was the contract awarded to ENSA to assemble the ITER vacuum chamber - a stainless steel structure weighing more than 8,000 tonnes that will house the fusion reactor at more than 150 million degrees centigrade, and will act as the first confinement barrier. This is one of the most critical projects due to its enormous technical complexity. The nine sectors that have been manufactured by European and South Korean contractors will be integrated in this assembly, including those of both ENSA and its sub-contractor.

Furthermore, the Leading-Empresarios Agrupados consortium was one of the first two bodies selected to manufacture the series of the first wall panels, or pieces that will be installed on the first wall of the reactor. To implement this series, due to last for eight years, the company Fusion Business Leadership (FBL) was incorporated, with a 50% stake from each company.

The first wall panels are components that are attached to the vacuum vessel with two main aims: to transfer the heat generated in the fusion to the refrigeration circuit and to protect the vacuum chamber from the extreme conditions of the plasma. This entails complex design and manufacture and inspection processes. The manufacture includes complex mechanisms, Berilio cladding, deep drilling, joints through Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP), etc. which must be performed in an automated fashion, with high precision and by remote control.

The manufacture of this series of panels will be one of two phases. The first involves the preparation of the installations and the production chain, individual qualification processes and finally, a comprehensive demonstration in a 30-panel test series. After this first phase, the manufacture of the rest of the series of panels will commence, with a volume that could rise to some 200, depending on the capacity and efficiency achieved in the test series. The final series will be distributed between the Spanish consortium and the company Atmostat.

Spain's participation in this project, which will create more than 140 jobs, places the national consortium in a good position to opt for the subsequent maintenance contract.

On another note, the Spanish companies Empresarios Agrupados and Cobra, together with the French company Ponticelli, will participate in the "Tokamak Complex contracts 2" agreement, which includes the installation of the machine's primary refrigeration system, the equipment of the blanket module tests (regenerated tritium blankets that will be tested in the ITER), the vacuum pipes and the system to remove the pressure from the vacuum chamber, among others. Furthermore, Added Value Solutions (AVS) will take part as a sub-contractor company in this project. Spain will implement some two thirds of the contracts entered into.

Finally, Ferrovial, in a consortium with the companies Vincci and Razel, will implement one third of the contract for the construction of the tritium building where the tritiated gases will be processed received from the Tokamak along with other sources to produce the deuterium and tritium gas to be used as a fuel.

The CDTI - focal point for Spanish nuclear fusion industry

Our country's participation in the main Large-scale Scientific Installations is managed by the Government of Spain through the Ministry of Science and Innovation, in accordance with the Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027 and with the principles of the European Research, Development and Innovation Policy and Strategy.

The Ministry of Science and Innovation has commissioned the CDTI with the work of maximising the technological and industrial return from Spain's contribution to the Large-scale Scientific Installations and of promoting the contracts implemented at these infrastructures by national industry to ensure that they are as important and performed with the highest level of technical excellence possible.

In all these infrastructures, the CDTI has been designated as the Industrial Liaison Officer (ILO), that is, as the contact point between the international organisation and the Spanish companies interested in participating in industrial opportunities. The CDTI centralises the network of national ILOs for the Large-scale Scientific Installations, publicising the tenders offered by these institution.

In its work to support companies, this body organises thematic events, helps in the training of consortiums and advises companies on the presentation of bids, thus advertising the capacities of national industry and also monitoring the contracts awarded to national companies. Furthermore, the CDTI has been training national industry to gain access to these opportunities through the development of R&D+i projects.

Non official translation