ITER-NL

Dutch activities on ITER

On the 14th of November 2007  a consortium of three Dutch institutes for ITER activities in The Netherlands was formed. The three institutes involved in the so-called ITER-NL consortium are FOM Rijnhuizen, the Nuclear Research Group (NRG, part of the Euratom-FOM Association) and the Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO). The goal of the consortium is to create a good scientific entry point for Dutch scientists into the ITER programme, and to prepare Dutch industry for successfully tendering on the various ITER procurement packages.

See also www.iter-nl.nl and Annual Report and Visitors Guide 2008.

Scientific expertise

Fusion researchers in the Netherlands have a unique expertise in the fields of measuring and manipulating turbulence in the plasma. This is an important niche, since it is at the heart of the ITER objectives. Control over the turbulence is critical for the success of ITER, and is one of the most challenging scientific subjects within the project. By exploiting its expertise, Dutch researchers and industry can obtain a key role in the success of fusion technology.

To exploit this expertise, two major systems are selected as the spearheads of the Dutch ITER contribution. The design of these systems can be claimed by the Netherlands within the European collaboration.

The first system is the upper port ECRH (Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating) launcher, refered to as the Upper Port Launcher or UPL, which can be used to suppress destabilising turbulent phenomena. The other system is the upper port CXRS (Charge Exchange Recombination Spectroscopy) system, the Upper Port Viewer or UPV. This is a diagnostic to measure turbulence in temperature, density and magnetic fields inside the plasma. Plasma rotation, known to stabilize turbulence, can also be measured with the UPV. Both systems will be developed in close cooperation with various European institutes. The UPV activity is done in very close collaboration with the Forschungszentrum Jülich.

Collaboration with industry

To deliver those instruments, apart from the scientific design, specialised technology should be developed and tested. This should be done in close collaboration with the relevant Dutch industries. It is the industry which will eventually build the instruments. To be part of the ITER project, the industry should have the right qualifications. Like in space technology, not only technological qualifications, but also project management, quality assurance, risk management and financial management are very important. For the ITER-NL consortium, this top layer should be set up.

Opportunities for industry

The same elements, but in a different mix, namely less scientific design and more industrial work, but with a similar “top layer” of project management and quality assurance, are necessary for the assignment of ITER parts outside of the UPL and UPV. With the ITER-NL project proposal, these boundary conditions will be fulfilled. This opens chances to a return on the ITER procurement-process in the order of 60 M€ or more. Moreover, the scientific involvement with the ITER project will be assured. The committed industry will get new chances on related markets. This may even yield returns that are multiple times the returns directly related to ITER.

Contact

Name                            Position                            email                                   Telephone

Gieljan de Vries               Industrial Contact Point       iter-nl [in_the_middle] rijnhuizen [dot] nl               +31 30 6096902

Toon Verhoeven              Industrial Liaison Officer      verhoeven [in_the_middle] rijnhuizen [dot] nl        +31 30 6096857