Start of the engineering validation and design phase of IFMIF

In the framework of the Broader Approach agreement, the main objective of the Engineering Validation and Engineering Design Activities (EVEDA) of IFMIF is ‘to produce a detailed, complete and fully integrated engineering design of the International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility and all data necessary for future decisions on the construction, operation, exploitation and decommissioning of IFMIF and to validate continuous and stable operation of each IFMIF subsystem’. The duration of the project is 6 years, starting from June 2007. The main technological and scientific challenges of IFMIF are recalled in a first part, leading to a proposal of validation activities, described in the second half of this paper.