BIM modelling of a component for the ITER project

Europe leads global research into fusion energy, which holds the promise of abundant, safe and sustainable energy for the future. This major European investment fosters industrial innovation, generating new knowledge and opening new markets, increases the competitiveness of companies and promotes economic growth.

B1P Group is proud to announce that it will carry out the BIM modelling of the Nitrogen Drying System for the SPIDER Beam Source. The equipment will be installed at Consorzio RFX Infrastructure as a test unit for the SPIDER EXPERIMENT within the ITER Organization fusion project, the most advanced fusion reactor in history.

Fusion, the nuclear reaction that powers the Sun and the stars, is a potential source of safe, carbon-free and virtually limitless energy. Harnessing the power of fusion is the goal of ITER, which has been designed as the key experimental step between today's fusion research machines and tomorrow's fusion power plants.

A year has passed since the inauguration of SPIDER, the world's most powerful negative ion source, which, through fusion, will be used to master key technologies in the field of heating systems. The knowledge gained will be used in ITER. This is why it is hosted at the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility (Padua, Italy), an international centre of scientific excellence. F4E, Consorzio RFX, ITER India and ITER Organization, together with around 120 companies, have contributed components, infrastructure and know-how to this experiment. The value of the components paid for by F4E is in the order of 34 million euros, while India's investment was around 3 million euros. Consorzio RFX financed the construction, paying around 25 million euros.

What is ITER? ITER, which means “the way” in Latin, will be the world's largest fusion energy experiment. It will be the first fusion device to produce more heat than is used to start the fusion reaction, drawing on an impressive range of technologies that are essential to deliver fusion energy in the future.

ITER's components number several million and will be integrated into the largest fusion device ever built. Assembling the device will be one of the most complex engineering operations ever undertaken. Europe is responsible for almost half of the machine's components.

We will keep you posted!