Maliaño, 4th of July 2018.- Equipos Nucleares S.A., S.M.E

Four more water detritiation tanks have been delivered to ITER as part of its fuel cycle system. The components resulted from a contract signed between F4E and Equipos Nucleares, SA in order to design, manufacture and deliver them to the site of the project in Cadarche. Works for their fabrication lasted approximately two years.

Two tanks measuring 7 m³, known as «holding tanks», will be used to store water. The two additional tanks, measuring 12 m³, known as «feeding tanks», will be used to feed the fuel cycle system with tritiated water. The four tanks will be installed next to the six water detritiation tanks, also manufactured by Ensa, which have been on-site since March 2015, claiming the title of Europe’s first-ever components delivered to ITER. The biggest fusion device will count ten of these tanks in total in order to cater for the needs of its fuel cycle.

Why do we need a water detritiation system in the ITER Tritium plant?  The answer is simple: because we need to recover the fuel to use it again so as to trigger off a new fusion reaction. Here is how it works in few simple steps: first, the two hydrogen isotopes are supplied to the machine through the Tritium plant; second, when the two isotopes reach the core of the machine they are heated at extremely high temperatures in order to fuse and to release energy; then, the fuel left from the fusion reaction, together with other gases, return through pumps to the ITER Tritium plant in order to recover the tritium and use it in a future reaction.

Sofía Corino, Ensa Special Projects Manager, Business Development Area said, «Ensa, in cooperation with its subsidiary, ENWESA, has been responsible for the design and manufacturing of the four additional water detritiation tanks which will be part of ITER’s fuel cycle system. The expertise and commitment to innovation of Ensa have been decisive to consolidate it as one of the leading European manufacturers of components for the biggest fusion energy project.»

The Automatic department belonging to the Advanced Technology Center of Equipos Nucleares SA, SME has designed and integrated the automatic welding controllers to the pulsed current welding systems of commercial welding equipment used in manufacturing.

This system allows pulsed arc welding by varying the intensity of the current between a base value and a peak value with which benefits are obtained in thermal regulation, and in the use of welding material.

The new development makes pulsed current welding compatible with the welding sources used in Ensa for existing automatic welding systems through the integration of new electronic designs. In this way, the welding parameters are optimized through the control of the electromechanical elements of the welding head.

Equipos Nucleares SA, SME , together Enresa, Enusa, the North American laboratories; Sandia National Laboratories and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and several organizations of South Korea , have been nominated for the «Secretary’s Honor Awards – Achievement Award» granted by the Department of Energy of the United States for its project to test the behavior of spent fuel during transportation through different means , carried out with Ensa´s design; the ENUN 32P cask.

To answer the question of whether it is possible a safely transport of spent nuclear fuel in the United States, SNL led this international team for 8 months and more than 9,000 miles to quantify the accelerations and vibrations experienced by fuel rods under normal transportation by rail, ship and road.

The analysis of the collected data revealed that the accelerations experienced by the fuel when it is transported in the ENUN 32P cask and the deformations suffered by the rods are well below the failure limits, ensuring that it maintains its integrity during normal transport conditions.

The «Secretary’s Honor Awards – Achievement Award» recognizes the extraordinary service and contributions of DOE employees for the benefit of the American nation and represents the highest internal non-monetary recognition they can receive.

 

50 American media broadcast these tests

More than fifty American digital media broadcast the tests carried out by Sandia National Laboratories to study the behavior during transportation of fuel elements in the dual purpose – storage and transport – ENUN 32P cask , designed and manufactured by Equipos Nucleares SA, SME .

Albuquerque Journal, Washington Times, The State, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Miami Herald, Occupational Health and Safety Online, Environmental Protection Online, Engineering.com are just a small sample of the online journals that echo that trials made by subjecting the container to different transport – road, maritime along the coast and the Atlantic Ocean and rail – validate that spent fuel maintains safety during normal transport conditions.

Equipos Nucleares S.A., S.M.E   successfully completed the first welds of a series of components of the ITER that are currently being manufactured.

All of this has been possible thanks to the preparation work developed by the welding team. Such welds have been designed and developed in the CTA , as well as the tests  and the qualifications carried out to the personnel who will work on the final components.

The high qualification and experience of all the manufacturing personnel have been reflected in the quality of their welds that have shown excellent results in the non-destructive testing phase, by achieving  «0» defects and in a project of high technological difficulty.

Equipos Nucleares S.A., S.M.E  successfully carried out the hydrostatic tests of three heat exchangers of the RJH reactor. These heat exchangers will be part of the primary circuit of the RJH that is built in the CEA premises in Cadarache .

The objectives for the RJH reactor are: the irradiation of materials and fuels used in current and future nuclear reactors, to guarantee the safety of these reactors and the production of radioisotopes for medical purposes. The RJH reactor will replace the Osiris reactor .