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In the nuclear operation the gaseous fuel is heated to a high temperature and becomes plasma. TC Ltd became involved after the fibre optic cables, which transmit essential data on the condition of the plasma, became cloudy as a result of the fuel mixtures used. The only way to prevent this was installation of specially heated fibre optic cable with a multi-zone control and alarm system.
The SR Mini was the ideal system for this application. Involving a European workforce of 700, JET provides data critical to the design and operation of the next step machine ITER, or International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Each stage marks a further step towards commercial fusion power stations. In a fusion reaction energy is released when light atoms are fused together. Fusion power requires deuterium, a form of hydrogen extracted from water, and tritium, a form of hydrogen that does not occur naturally and has to be manufactured using lithium. Heated to high temperatures, the nuclei of these atoms fuse together releasing helium and high-speed neutrons. A commercial fusion power station will use heat generated by the neutrons and slowed down by a blanket of denser material to generate electricity.
The control/alarm modules are DIN rail mounted with up to 20 advanced PID control loops on a single power supply and communications module. Up to 16 communication modules may be connected to a single serial port, giving a maximum of 320 control loops. Other controllers were too bulky or not compatible with JET's PC driven control system.
The SR Mini also features a range of monitoring, alarm and digital input/output modules for a range of thermocouple, RTD and analogue process inputs. It is simple to install, configure, commission and operate and is easily linked to a PC and/or MMI and/or PLC for control, monitoring and data acquisition. Linking software chosen for the JET application was the Specview SCADA package that features a unique self-configuring start-up mode allowing very fast configuration by the user.
