DONES-FLUX

Industrial technological research aimed at optimizing the efficiency of a large scientific fusion facility such as IFMIF-DONES.

On December 30, 2022, a grant was published for the DONES-FLUX project, which will take a holistic approach to optimizing the various flows within IFMIF-DONES. This will make it possible to have a state-of-the-art intelligent facility that can eliminate inefficiencies that put its operation and maintenance at risk, especially in the current scenario of energy crisis.

This project involves, led by HI-Iberia, involves ASE Optics Europe, DEM Barcelona, EDAIR Technologies, Leading Metal-Mechanic Solutions and SUPRASYS.

Specifically, the following elements will be addressed:

• An intelligent system with buffering capacity and intelligent demand management will be developed to control the flow of energy in the grid.
• Developments will be carried out to optimize particle beam flow control (extraction systems, radiofrequency cavities and Artificial Intelligence strategies).
• The lithium flow will be controlled by means of non-contact measurement systems that allow real-time monitoring of both flow characteristics and argon levels with intelligent support in unique laboratories designed for this purpose.
• Finally, as a result of the installation, an AI system will be investigated to improve the neutron flux efficiency.

Advancing in these different elements will offer solutions to priority needs identified by the IFMIF-DONES Spain Consortium (members of the project team), which guarantees their adequacy to the project, but, in addition, most of the solutions that will be investigated can be directly extrapolated to other facilities in the fusion roadmap or in the science industry sector in general.