[1F3] Acoustic emission monitoring of a nuclear fusion reactor
S Grigg¹, A Gunda², S Hurrell¹, D Liu¹ and N Hartley¹
¹TWI Ltd, UK
²Optics11, UK
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be the world’s largest fusion reactor and aims to be the first net positive nuclear reactor. At the centre of this vast project is the tokamak, a double-walled vacuum vessel, where the plasma reaction will take place; this vessel then sits within a cryostat. The anticipated lifetime of the ITER project is 20 years and, once started, access to the vessel for inspection will be challenging due to high levels of radiation. An acoustic emission (AE) monitoring system is therefore to be installed permanently on the outer wall of the vessel to enable monitoring of the hydrostatic pressure tests that will be performed to certify and recertify the vessel. The AE system, which will consist of traditional piezoelectric and novel fibre-optic sensors, must be qualified to survive the harsh environmental conditions of the cryostat and meet the operational requirements despite implementation challenges.
