Walter Tosto S.p.A.

Walter Tosto SpA has significant experiences and know-how, inherited from Bosco Industrie Meccaniche SpA dating back to the early sixties, particularlly in the supply of critical equipment.

Walter Tosto's activities in the Nuclear field was successfully carried on up to 1987, period in which the Italian nuclear power referendum stopped the Italian nuclear power generation plan. However we continued collaborating with research organizations such as INFN (Istituto Nazionale Fisica Nucleare - National Institute of Nuclear Physics – Assergi – AQ) and Princeton University.

Thanks to these collaborations, in 1997 Walter Tosto took part in the BOREXINO PROJECT for the supply of sphere and cylinder in Pure 316 LN Stainless Steel. Borexino is an international experiment, located deep underground in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of Italy and dedicated to the observation of low-energy solar neutrinos.

Today, Walter Tosto Spa is fully able to manufacture components and items for the nuclear island like Steam Generators and relating components for heat transfer of the primary loop. For secondary loops, the company is able to manufacture equipment like HP/ LP feedwater preheaters, HP heat exchangers, condensers, steam drums, dearators and water tanks.

WALTER TOSTO’s objective for 2011 is to achieve ASME N stamp “Rules For Construction Of Nuclear Facility Components”.

We are developing staff skills and qualifications at all levels and in all deparments with traning courses and workshops, as for example:

“Introduction to the French RCC-MR Code” (17th/ 18th February 2011), for Nuclear Division;
“ASME N: ASME BPVC section III and NQA-1 - The Construction Of Pressure Equipment For Nuclear Industry” (2010/2011) , involving Quality Department and personnel in the Nuclear Division;
“Training for Welding Inspectors”, for key people in the Welding Department;

As confirmation of Walter Tosto capabilities, skills, know-how and experience, the company has been qualified as approved Vendor by the relevant players in the nuclear field, as AREVA, WESTINGHOUSE and ENEL NUCLEAR.

Fusion for Energy (F4E) has signed a contract for the supply of seven sectors of the ITER vacuum vessel with the European consortium of AMW (Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A, Mangiarotti S.p.A and Walter Tosto S.p.A). The contract, expected to run for 6 years and worth almost 300 million EUR, is the biggest single work package of Europe’s contribution to ITER and is the largest component of the ITER device. The complexity of the vacuum vessel, its size, the amount of welding required and the degree of precision which is needed to build the component, brand this contract as one of the most important and technologically challenging of the ITER project. The in-wall shielding bolted inside the vessel’s walls will be delivered by India and ports to be welded on the

D-shape sectors will be manufactured by Russia and Korea, while the two other sectors of the vacuum vessel will be supplied by Korea. What is the function of the vacuum vessel in the ITER device?

The ITER vacuum vessel is located inside the cryostat of the ITER device and its basic function is to operate as the chamber that hosts the fusion reaction. Within this torus-shaped vessel, plasma particles collide and release energy without touching any of its walls due to the process of magnetic confinement. The vacuum vessel is composed of nine sectors made of thick special grade stainless steel and each sector is 13 metres high, 6.5 metres wide and 6.3 metres deep.

All of the sectors are similar and are built with double-walls containing the bolted- on shielded plates with a pressured inter-space which combine to attenuate the thermonuclear flux so as to avoid overheating of the super conducting coils. The weight of each sector is approximately 500 tons and the weight of the entire component, when welded together, will reach an impressive total of 5000 tons which is equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel Tower.

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