Leonardo, through its subsidiary Vitrociset, was awarded the tender announced by the ITER Organization for the development of the reactor diagnostic infrastructures and the related engineering services.
ITER is one of the most ambitious projects in the world in the field of energy. In France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, 35 countries are engaged in the construction of the largest Tokamak ever designed, a machine that must prove that the fusion - the energy of the Sun and the stars - can be used for the production of large-scale electricity, based on safe technologies and from renewable sources. The results of the ITER science program will be decisive in paving the way for the fusion power plants of tomorrow. To date, the program has received funding of over 20 billion euros and the primary objective is the ignition of the so-called first plasma in 2025.
Vitrociset's activities in the Diagnostics division of ITER started in 2016 with the signing of a framework agreement, which saw the company being the leader of the consortium made up of the most important Italian research institutes, the National Research Council ( CNR) and the national agency for new technologies, energy and sustainable economic development (ENEA). In 2018 Vitrociset was also selected among the main industrial groups, which work in control and robotics systems, to provide the "remote handling supervisory control system" for the ITER reactor, that is, it is committed to the design, development, integration and commissioning in service of the system dedicated to the interface of all robotic equipment intended for plant maintenance interventions, in order to ensure real-time communication with the central control system (CODAC).
Today's contract provides for activities until 2026. These will be carried out by Vitrociset personnel, thanks to an international team that now numbers over 20 people, physicists and engineers, and which will grow further. The diagnostics work team works alongside Vitrociset staff, involved in control systems, both at ITER and at the European program development support agency, Fusion For Energy (F4E).
The award of this tender allows Vitrociset to grow and consolidate its presence in the Big Science world, now of strategic importance. In this way, the company will continue to support the activities for the ignition of the first plasma, which represents a global challenge to create a new energy production plant, based on renewable sources, able to guarantee safety and reliability.