Today’s innovations are tomorrow’s present: as part of projects and collaborations, our highly qualified scientists and engineers develop solutions in a wide variety of scientific disciplines for national and international research centers as well as for energy supply companies.

The spectrum ranges from evaluating and answering complex questions from research and development, designing innovative system components and processes, reviewing calculation bases up to the detailed planning of complex projects using international codes and standards.

Thereby we trust in a national and international network of research institutions and established partners.

We are shaping the future of energy in major European projects like CERN, ITER and DEMO by translating innovative research ideas into industrial scale solutions.

By the second half of the 21st century, human civilization will have reached a point where its resource and energy consumption is so immense that nuclear fusion can be an important part of energy production to maintain high levels of development and prosperity. It is therefore necessary to develop and design unique technical solutions for nuclear fusion, where the research and development makes a significant contribution to proving technical feasibility.

Since 1998, a Kraftanlagen team has been carrying out planning services in a consortium at CERN, for example for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and subsequent experiments such as the ATLAS detector.

Tritium technology (H3), an important area in accomplishing the challenges of the present and the fuel for a sustainable energy supply of the future.

For the currently largest international development project ITER in southern France (Cadarache), our employees developed systems for the tritium handling. After establishing a branch in Manosque, our scientists worked directly with the ITER teams on site and carried out calculations and modeling of components, organized international design reviews and provided system engineering support services.

Kraftanlagen Heidelberg was awarded and therefore responsible for the detailed design of the ITER WDS (Water Detritiation System). During the course of three years, the design was successfully finalized after validation by an international committee during the design review meeting held at ITER headquarters.

To summarize our many years of experience in the handling and processing of tritium, the following projects should be mentioned:

The knowledge and lessons learned gained from ITER shall be used to develop a demonstration power plant called DEMO, the DEMOnstration Power Plant, where for the first time electricity produced by nuclear fusion is being supplied to the electrical grid. KAH’s industrial task is to realize a state-of-the-art and foremost reliable Power Conversion System (PCS) concept for the future DEMO.

The focus is on the technical feasibility, reliability and efficiency and based on the state-of-the-art technology for a nuclear fusion power plant. Our involvement expanded towards the development of the DEMO fuel cycle architecture.

In addition, several feasibility studies for the DEMO Balance of Plant (BoP) were performed in the fields of sizing and optimization of the BoP concepts and components, in evaluating the Energy Storage System (ESS) for a Direct-Coupling Configuration as well as for the optimization of the Turbine Configuration and the Thermal Storage Concept for the pulsed operation.

Our contribution to a sustainable energy safety and energy supply. As nearly 100 years ago, Kraftanlagen Heidelberg is an innovative pioneer in the development of future-oriented technologies for the power plants of tomorrow, in order to provide future generations with safe, reliable and sustainable energy generation.