ITER, meaning "the way" in Latin, is a major international experiment with the aim of demonstrating the scientific and technical feasibility of nuclear fusion as energy source. It will be 30 times more powerful than the Joint European Torus (JET) which is currently the largest comparable experiment operating in the world. ITER will allow scientists and engineers to develop the knowledge and technologies needed to proceed to a next phase of electricity production through fusion power stations.
ITER functioning is based on generation of high temperature plasma gas which is confined in a vacuum vessel by strong magnetic fields. Such kind of machine needs periodic inspections, necessary to check for possible damages of components; TV systems directly inserted into the vessel cannot be reliable due to the large amounts of neutron and gamma radioactivity (typical collateral effects of the nuclear fusion phenomenon).
To overcome this limit a laser in vessel viewing and ranging system prototype based on an AM (amplitude modulation laser radar scheme) was developed at ENEA Frascati laboratories in the framework of EFDA (European Fusion Development Agreement) activity. This prototype, called IVVS (In Vessel Viewing System), is going now through a tuning phase which needs the help of a virtual tool which simulates the functioning of the system. The tool, called IVVS Platform, is a software developed by EnginSoft on the basis of ENEA’s technical specifications; the core of the tool is made of APDL (ANSYS Program Design Language) routines managed by modeFRONTIER. The presentation summarizes the IVVS system main features and then describes the procedure followed for the IVVS Platform development as well as the obtained results and the expected advantages coming from the usage of it being modeFRONTIER the steering software of the Platform.
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