#113 Response by ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot
Return to ITER Power Facts Main Page
By Steven B. Krivit
Feb. 24, 2022
On Monday, New Energy Times published “French Regulator Halts Assembly of ITER Reactor.”
Today, Bernard Bigot, the director-general of the ITER organization, sent the following letter to ITER staff members. Several of them sent us copies of the letter, which we have reproduced, unedited, below.
From: Bigot Bernard <Bernard.Bigot@iter.org>
Sent: 24 February 2022 14:00
To: only-staff <only-staff@iter.org>; All-IPA <All-IPA@iter.org>
Subject: FW: Message to All-ITER regarding ongoing activities with ASN, the French safety regulator
Dear Colleagues,
For those of you who are not yet aware, I would like to inform you that the IO has received a letter from the French Nuclear Regulator (ASN, Autorité de sûreté nucléaire) dated 25 January 2022 in response to our request, dated 1 February 2021, for authorization to start assembling Tokamak equipment inside the cryostat (welding of the first two vacuum vessel sectors). The purpose of our request was to get the release of the Hold Point decided in November 2013 by ASN for checking as-built performances of the B2 slab supporting the Tokamak Complex Building. This is normal procedure after ASN validated the proposed ITER design in 2012 and signed the “décret d’autorisation de creation” of ITER as a nuclear installation in 9 November 2012.
After many meetings at technical levels with ASN and IRSN (its technical supporting organisation) during the year 2021/early 2022, ASN considered that there were still some points that require complementary analysis and safety demonstration. They are mainly related to radiation protection measures, confirmation of the as-built masses supported by the slab and their impact on the mechanical resilience of the slab in extreme conditions, and qualifications of the process of the vacuum welding after due consideration of some geometrical non-conformities of the sectors interfaces that we had detected.
We immediately set up a IO task force with all the stakeholders to address the complementary requests from ASN before they would be able to release the hold point for Tokamak assembly. Our roadmap is to provide IO key answers before the end of April 2022 in such a way ASN could assess them and decide about the release without impacting the ITER schedule for installation of the sectors.
Recently some misinformation has circulated at the initiative of a few well-known anti-hydrogen-fusion activists regarding the status of the ASN (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire) oversight of the ITER project. It is important for all ITER staff and collaborators to be reassured regarding this issue.
Contrary to what has been claimed by these anti-ITER fellows using social media, the ASN has not shut down ITER construction – as anyone at ITER may find quite evident by observing the broad range of successful activities progressing every day across the worksite, at the highest standards of quality and safety. There have also been claims that the vacuum vessel sectors were dropped – also false. While some nonconformities have been identified with the vacuum vessel sectors (see above), as noted in the ASN letter, these are technical challenges for which we will provide safe, high quality engineering solutions. Given the unprecedented technical specifications for ITER’s many First-of-a-Kind components, which we are combining into a First-of-a-Kind machine, some such nonconformities and technical challenges are to be expected – and in fact, over the past 7 years and more, we have overcome many technical challenges, and we will continue to do so.
Please do not be distracted by these types of false claims. The One-ITER team – all of you – should feel absolutely proud of the amazing work that has been performed so far, the work being performed every day, and our determination to face the challenges that lie ahead. I ask you never to lose sight of the ultimate goal: we are committed to deliver the ITER facility as a demonstration of the feasibility of fusion power to provide safe, environmentally friendly, and virtually unlimited energy for future generations.
With gratitude for your continued strong efforts on behalf of the ITER project,
Warmest regards,
Bernard
