The international nuclear fusion project Iter, which aims to disrupt energy production, will face delays that have yet to be determined due to several critical parts failing, its chief executive said.

Already, the date of the first production of plasma, essential for fusion, initially planned for 2025, cannot be held, explained Thursday to AFP Pietro Barabaschi, new director general.

He was appointed in September to lead this international research project which brings together seven partners: China, South Korea, United States, India, Japan, European Union and Russia.

Financial impact

These incidents will also have a financial impact.

"We have to redo our plans to minimize the additional costs," admitted Pietro Barabaschi, without making any precise figures at this stage.

“We have two problems,” he explained: First, gaps of up to two centimeters have been discovered on parts that need to be welded together to form the gigantic “vacuum chamber”. loop in the shape of an air chamber where the fusion reaction will take place.

Three of these "sectors", already arrived on the Iter site, in Saint-Paul-les-Durance, in Provence (south of France) are concerned.

One of them has even already been installed in the pit in which the experiment is to take place and will have to be removed.

Second defect noted, traces of corrosion on the "thermal screens" which must protect against the very high heat emitted during the melting.

This could lead to leaks of the helium used in the cooling circuit.

New calendar

These repairs will delay the project.

"It's not a process that takes weeks, but months, even a few years," explained Mr. Barabaschi, who must develop a new schedule of operations by the end of the year.

The development and implementation of this new schedule will be scrutinized by the French Nuclear Safety Authority, which pointed to "a lack of safety culture" during its inspections of Iter, Bastien Lauras told AFP. , head of the ASN Marseille division.

The independent administrative authority "considers that Iter has not taken sufficient measures to deal with these discrepancies (on the welding points) at the right time and in particular to prevent them from recurring in the "sectors" still in the process of building," he said.

Iter is expected to reach full power in 2035.

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