A consortium comprising Ansaldo Nucleare, Empresarios Agrupados Internacional and Framatome has been awarded a four-year, €10 million ($11 million) framework contract by the European Commission for the pre-conceptual design of ITER's successor, the Demonstration Fusion Power Reactor (Demo).

Demo, which is expected to be built by 2050, will aim to demonstrate the continuous output of energy, supplying electricity to the grid. Demo will be a pre-industrial nuclear fusion reactor based on the knowledge acquired through the Joint European Tourus (JET) and ITER experiences.

The contract, of which Ansaldo Nucleare represents approximately 40% of the total value, aims at a physical and technological evaluation of the system architecture of the nuclear fusion plant, of its general configuration and of the system engineering processes.

The contract will provide services based on European industrial best practices in the sectors of: physical and technological system architectures of energy production plants; general configuration of systems and system engineering processes, with particular attention to plant design, technological options and feasibility; plant production options; design of specific components; control system; project risk identification, assessment and mitigation; cost impact assessment of the suggested solutions.

Photo: CAD model of  DEMO Tokamak Primary Heat Transport Systems (Photo: Ansaldo Nuclear)