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Vacuum Vessel Procurement on the critical path

28 Apr 2008 - Gary Johnson, ITER Deputy Director-General for the Tokamak Department

The procurement activities for the vacuum vessel are receiving a lot of attention these days for several reasons: firstly it is one of the biggest procurements within the ITER project (worth ~350 Million Euro) and it is on its critical path. Secondly, the vacuum vessel interfaces with almost every system on the project; thirdly, it forms a critical safety barrier for the project; and fourthly it is impacted by the ELM coils that are perhaps the most critical new system to result from the Design Review.

The target date to have the Vacuum Vessel Procurement Arrangement (PA) ready to sign is June 30, 2008. As this date approaches fast, several critical activities must be finalized:

* PA documents for the main vessel and ports. Two separate documents are being generated in close collaboration with the European and the Korean Domestic Agencies. This activity is now about 80 % complete and a new version of the PAs is put in IDM each week.

* Interfaces with the VV. Interface documents are being developed for each of the more than 20 interfacing systems. This has been a major collaborative effort with every department in the project and first drafts have been developed for each system. What remains to be done is to finalize the drafts and determine what is included in the PA document itself. This will be done during the next few weeks.

* Vacuum vessel analyses. More that 20 major analyses have been done for the vacuum vessel and these must be checked (models, load conditions, etc) and documented to verify that the vessel design is correct and complete. This is a very big task involving 3-5 people at present.

* 3D models for the vessel and ports. There is a separate model for each of the nine vessel sectors and three main models for the ports. To date, about half have been sent to the European and the Korean Domestic Agencies.

An activity going on in parallel with the vacuum vessel Procurement Arrangement is the ELM coil design. This coil design will have an impact on the vacuum vessel design and this is being defined. During a meeting in late May, the coil design, VV interfaces, and their impact on the Vessel PA will be reviewed. The results of this meeting will determine the implementation plan for both the coils and the VV procurement.

All of this must come together and be presented at the VV Final Design Review (FDR) that is planned for mid-June. At this review we will determine if the VV design and supporting information is sufficient to move ahead with procurement.

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