Recently, the ITER magnets team together with representatives from the Chinese Domestic Agency (CN-DA) visited the strand supplier Western Superconducting Technologies (WST) in Xi'an in order to review the status of the strand production and assess the readiness for the next production phases. WST has been selected by CN-DA to provide the Nb3Sn strand for the Chinese share of ITER's Toroidal Field (TF) conductors and all NbTi strand for the Poloidal Field (PF) Coils numbers two and five, the Correction Coils and the feeder conductors. This amounts to about 30 tons of Nb3Sn and 150 tons of NbTi strand.

Since the beginning of 2009, WST has invested a lot of effort in finalizing the strand designs for the ITER conductors and in implementing a Quality Assurance System according to the high ITER standards. After two days of checking material certificates and work instructions, the representatives of the CN-DA and ITER's Quality Assurance (QA) Divisions confirmed that there is full traceability and that the documentation meets the ITER QA requirements.

The technical performance of the WST strand is very good as well. The PF conductor performance qualification sample made out of their NbTi strand has successfully passed the test in the Sultan facility this May, and end of October WST qualified their reference Nb3Sn strand for the TF conductor. After reviewing all the data provided, CN-DA and the ITER Organization came to the conclusion that WST is qualified for TF and PF strand production. As a consequence, WST can now launch the second production phase for both strand types.

For CN-DA, this is a significant step forward into the production of ITER conductors as it demonstrates that China has the capability to produce qualified CICC conductor for ITER. Thanks to the good collaboration with CN-DA and the large R&D program launched, WST has been qualified in time as one of the major strand supplier for the ITER project.