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Ferrovial and Vinci land €230m nuclear fusion contract

19 Dec 12 A consortium of Ferrovial Agroman, Vinci and Razel-Bec has been chosen to design and build fusion energy research facilities in the south of France.

This is the principal civil engineering contract of ITER, an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, and is worth €230m (£187m). Client for the scheme is Fusion for Energy, a European Union joint undertaking.

The five-and-a-half-year contract, which will start next month, includes design, construction, and related final works.

The ITER project, financed by the European Union, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia and China, is the largest experiment in the world dedicated to proving the scientific and technical viability of fusion as a source of energy. The EU entity Fusion For Energy is responsible for the adjudication of contracts.

The consortium, in which Ferrovial Agroman holds a 30% stake, will design and construct 11 buildings and storage areas on a 42ha site in Cadarache, near Marseille, in southern France. The facilities include the Tokamak complex that will host the reactor and the assembly hall, which will serve as an antechamber for building the reactor.

ITER aims to produce 500MW of fusion power with pulses of around seven minutes, or 300MW with pulses of 50 minutes. This will allow scientists and engineers to develop the expertise and technology needed to proceed to the next phase of power generation using fusion power plants. The ITER project will be 30-times bigger than the Joint European Torus, currently the largest fusion power experiment in the world.  

India’s Larsen & Toubro was appointed in September to provide ITER's containment vessel.

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