PCC Helps To Create a New Era of Clean Energy
PCC is producing key structural components for ITER, the world’s largest fusion reactor now under construction in France. The ITER tokamak machine is designed to produce a “star on earth” or burning plasma - a necessary step for the development of fusion energy. The United States is one of seven ITER partners, along with China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea and Russia.
PCC is manufacturing components for structures that will surround the central solenoid electromagnet in the unique machine. The central solenoid, known as the “heartbeat of ITER” will have 5.5 gigajoules of stored energy and be about 60 feet tall. The structures around the solenoid provide a secure cage for the magnet, which can be subject to up to 6,000 tons of force.
Fusion is a nuclear process that occurs naturally in stars like our sun. On earth, fusion reactions by heating, compressing and confining hydrogen plasmas at 100 million degrees have been achieved for very short periods of time. Using magnetic confinement of sun-hot plasmas over longer periods, ITER will allow scientists to explore the physics of a burning plasma at energy densities close to that of a commercial power plant.
Fusion promises to change the way humankind generates heat and electricity … all in a carbon-free manner without high-level long-term radioactive waste. Fusion can be fueled by readily available resources: Deuterium (heavy hydrogen) is plentiful in water and tritium can be produced during the fusion process. The nuclear fusion reaction in a tokamak is inherently safe, with no risk of a runaway reaction. Achieving fusion requires precise conditions and if these are not met, the reaction dies out.
The successful integration and assembly of over one million components (ten million parts) built in the ITER Members' factories around the world and delivered to the ITER site in France constitutes a tremendous logistics and engineering challenge. PCC’s contributions are helping US ITER and the ITER project meet this challenge.
More information is available through the following links to some extremely interesting websites:
Precision Custom Components, LLC
500 Lincoln St. P.O. Box 15101
York company, PA, 17405
Phone: 717-848-1126
Contact:
Jim Stouch
Vice President, Business Development
email: jstouch@pcc-york.com
