**1. Statement of problems related to structural integrity and service life of thermonuclear installations**

In the modern age, the day-to-day activities of individuals, states and the international community are all closely dependent on the existence of a reliable power supply. The main components of the power industry include energy resources, power installations and power supply systems [1, 2]. Both the global and domestic energy mixes include:

• traditional power sources which have been used for a century or more (thermal - coal, oil, gas, hydraulic, wind, solar);


The changes in the respective importance of these types of energy *E* and the relative growth of global energy production *E* in the 21st century are shown in **Figure 1**.

In 2020, Russia adopted a new energy strategy for the period until 2035 [1]. It focuses on the development of new and promising types of energy, with a gradual reduction in dependence on traditional types which is driven by scientific and technological advances and economic efficiency and environmental considerations.

The analysis [1–3] of the prospects for the development of energy until 2030, 2050 and 2100, the focus will be primarily on problems of a scientific, design, technological and operational nature, aimed at ensuring the safety, structural integrity and service life of power facilities [4–8]. This focus is due to the fact that trends in the extraction, production and use of energy have been significantly impacted by major accidents and disasters in the late 20th and early 21st centuries in the USSR, Russia, the USA, Norway, Mexico and China, due to technical failures in unique thermal, hydraulic and nuclear power installations, offshore oil and gas production platforms, and tankers used for the transportation of oil and liquefied natural gas. These accidents and catastrophes were caused by failures to comply with structural integrity requirements and the consequent collapse of load-bearing structures including buildings, vessels, pipelines, electric generators, turbines, and platform structures. Such accidents have resulted in tens or in some cases hundreds of deaths, as well the destruction of technical facilities and chemical pollution and radioactive contamination in surrounding areas. The resulting economic losses are estimated in 109 –1011 US dollars. In this regard, since the 1960s, scientists, engineers and specialists from around the world have begun to pay special attention to ensuring structural integrity and preventing accidents and disasters resulting from technical failures in power facilities of all types. Moreover, fundamentally new tasks have arisen in relation to both existing nuclear energy and promising thermonuclear energy technologies. These types of energy offer new solutions to problems relating to the production, processing and use of energy resources, by virtue of the far smaller volume and mass of fuel required- 1 g of deuterium used in a thermonuclear unit produces the same amount of energy as a whole column of oil tanker wagons. Thermonuclear power, in contrast to nuclear power using thermal and fast

**Figure 1.**

*Structure and development potential of the energy mix.*

## *Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Structural Properties of Load-Bearing Components… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94531*

neutrons, can fundamentally transform the risk of ionizing and radiation damage during the decay and fission of heavy uranium and plutonium nuclei.

The controlled thermonuclear fusion of deuterium-tritium and deuteriumdeuterium, which was first proposed in the USSR by academicians A.D. Sakharov, I.E. Tomm and L.A. Artsimovich. This fusion results in the synthesis of heavier helium, accompanied by a release of a huge amount of energy. The thermonuclear fusion processes carried out in thermonuclear power installations on Earth are essentially the same as the processes that take place on the surface of and inside the Sun.

The subsequent theoretical research on, and practical development [2] of thermonuclear fusion in Russia was led by Academicians E.P. Velikhov, V.A. Glukhikh, and B.B. Kadomtsev, who worked on the physics of thermonuclear installations, and Academician K.V. Frolov [2]., who worked on issues relating to mechanics and the structural integrity and service life of facilities. The initial reactors developed for use in thermonuclear installations were of two types:


The resolution of the problems relating to thermonuclear power installations can be (**Figure 1**) divided into three main stages:


In Russia, the first stage included a pulsed thermonuclear installation of the first type, Angara-5 (**Figure 2**) in which a micro-fusion explosion was triggered by a stream of electrons emitted from a system of super-powerful condensers, and a series of fusion reactor installations of the second, or tokamak type (T-7, T-10, T-15, T-20).

The emergence and behavior of thermonuclear fusion of a deuterium-tritium mixture with the formation of helium occurs in Tokomak installations, with the release of high energy. Maintaining this reaction in the toroidal chamber is carried out by a powerful alternating magnetic field generated by the network of coils. The thermonuclear fusion reaction is carried out in the plasma inside the chamber, heated to a temperature of over 100 million degrees. Huge mechanical and thermal forces arise in electromagnetic coils with a superconductor at cryogenic temperatures. These forces generate high stresses and strains in Tokamak structures (**Figure 3**).

Drawing on research into all types of reactors [4–10] on the basis of the above developments of experimental thermonuclear installations, in 1995 an international work (USA, USSR-Russia, Japan, India, France, South Korea and others) began on the development [3, 11, 12] of the world's largest international demonstration thermonuclear

**Figure 2.** *Angara-5.*

**Figure 3.** *Tokamak Т-7.*

*Theoretical and Experimental Analysis of Structural Properties of Load-Bearing Components… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.94531*

**Figure 4.** *International thermonuclear experimental reactor ITER (ITER).*

**Figure 5.** *Schematic diagram of the international thermonuclear experimental reactor ITER.*

reactor, or ITER (**Figure 4**) with a chamber volume of 830 m3 and a plasma temperature of 100–500 million 0 С (**Figure 4**), to be completed by 2025 (**Figure 5**).
