Select your newsletters:
Please enter your email address:
@
News & Media
Latest ITER Newsline
-
Pre-compression ring facility | Ready to exert serious pressure
The tool is ready; the first prototypes are on their way. Soon, a specialized test bench at CNIM (France) will enter into service to verify the resistance of th [...]
-
Internal auditor | A partner in identifying solutions
ITER's new internal auditor Friedrich Lincke goes where his expertise is needed to make a difference. Armed with valuable experience from many years of service [...]
-
Sub-assembly tools | A 12-tonne beam, a crane and a little push
There is nothing remarkable about lifting a 12-tonne beam. Except when it happens in the spectacular setting of the ITER Assembly Hall, and the beam needs to be [...]
-
Hiring | Skilled candidates wanted
In 2018 the number of staff members employed by the ITER Organization increased to 858, as skilled and qualified candidates joined from each of the seven ITER M [...]
-
Toroidal field coils | First ITER magnet arrives this year
A major milepost is projected for 2019 as the first of ITER's powerful, high-field magnets is scheduled to arrive from Japan. Let's take a look behind the scene [...]
ITER NEWSLINE -
And now, it's for keeps!
At first view, nothing distinguishes the current operations in the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility from those that got underway last November: steel-jacketed conductor is being unspooled, straightened, cleaned, bent to the correct angle, and wrapped with layers of insulating tape ... technicians in white lab coats are carefully performing dimensional checks ... and there is the same machine hum and flash of orange lights.
The real thing—production winding—has started for poloidal field coil #5. In this on-site facility at ITER, Europe will produce the four largest poloidal field coils.
The difference lies in the heart of the steel-jacketed component. In the dummy conductor, the strands were one hundred percent copper. This less-expensive material—which respected the actual dimensions of the true conductor—was a good choice for qualifying the production line; contractors used it to first produce a semi-winding (four turns) and then a full two-layer dummy double pancake.
In the actual conductor, the strands consist of a mix of copper and of the superconducting alloy niobium-titanium. Four poloidal field coils (out of the six needed for the machine), will be manufactured by Europe in the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility. With diameters of 17 to 24 metres and weights ranging from 200 to 400 tonnes, these impressive components will require approximately 18 months each to manufacture.
Two smaller ring coils, with diameters of approximately 8 metres, are in production now in Russia and China.
See a recent report from the European Domestic Agency on fabrication activities for poloidal field coils #5 and #6 here.
return to the latest published articles