Winding trials progress for ring magnet #6
24 Jan 2016
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European Domestic Agency
At the Chinese institute ASIPP, in Hefei, qualification tests are underwayon insulation winding tooling.
Tooling and testing activities are underway on ITER poloidal field coil number 6 (PF6) in China, reports the European Domestic Agency that is responsible for procuring this poloidal field coil and four others.
In a workshop at the Institute of Plasma Physics/Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP) in Hefei, engineers have been conducting trials to qualify and test the winding tooling and carry out vacuum chamber leak tests, welding tests and insulation qualification tests.
Six ring-shaped coils, situated outside of the toroidal field magnet structure, will act to shape the plasma in ITER and contribute to its stability by keeping it away from the walls. The smallest poloidal field coil (PF1) situated at the top of the machine will be supplied by Russia; the five others (PF2-6) are under the procurement responsibility of Europe. The four largest coils under European procurement responsibility will be manufactured in an on-site facility (see tooling progress in this issue), while the second-smallest coil, PF6, will be manufactured in China according to an agreement concluded with the European agency.
The 350-tonne, 10-metre coil will be leak-tested in this vacuum chamber.
Poloidal field coil number six will measure 10 metres in diameter and will weigh approximately 350 tonnes. Nine double pancakes (flat, spiralled coils) wound from niobium-titanium conductor will be stacked to form the final coil assembly. ICAS (the consortium responsible for the production of European conductors) has already shipped six conductor unit lengths to China, as well as two copper dummies to be used in testing; the rest of the conductors will reach China in 2016.
Read the full report on the European Domestic Agency website.