ITER vacuum vessel discussed in Korea and Cadarache

A meeting was held on 16-17 March 2007 in Seoul, Korea with representatives of the IO, EU, and Korea, to discuss the procurement scheme for the ITER vacuum vessel, and to agree on the general roadmap for implementation. The main vessel including the blanket manifolds and hydraulic connectors will be jointly constructed by the EU and Korea. (The construction of the ports will be shared between the Russian Federation and Korea, while India will be responsible for the shielding.) The possibility of forming a consortium between EU and KO industry to produce the vessel was discussed, as it would offer important advantages.

As part of this meeting, IO and EU representatives visited the Doosan and Hyundai heavy industry facilities in Korea. These companies manufactured major components of the KSTAR tokamak.

Since then, a second meeting was held in Cadarache (May 10-11) with EU and KO representatives, where the Vacuum Vessel procurement scheme was discussed in more detail. Earlier in the week, KO industry representatives visited several industrial facilities in Europe.