Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Collaboration | Japan and Europe inaugurate largest tokamak in the world

    It was 6:00 a.m. in La Bergerie, a former sheep barn located a few kilometres from ITER in the vast Château de Cadarache domain that had been converted in 2 [...]

    Read more

  • Stakeholders | ITER Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida

    In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | Season wrapping

    Although the travel distance is short, barely exceeding one hundred metres, the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #8 from the Assembly Hall, where it is presentl [...]

    Read more

  • In memoriam | Bernard Pégourié, physicist and mountaineer

    The worldwide fusion community mourns Bernard Pégourié, of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (CEA-IRFM), who passed away on 25 November following [...]

    Read more

  • COP28 | Fusion is making a splash

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, opened on 30 November in Dubai's Expo City—a sprawling conference centre built two years ago for the W [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Toroidal field coils

Europe completes all "double pancakes"

Each one of ITER's giant, D-shaped toroidal field coils is built from seven "double pancakes"—layers of spiralled conductor that carry electrical current. Contractors to the European Domestic Agency have now realized 70 of these 16-metre-tall components, completing the scope required for the fabrication of ten toroidal field coils.
At ASG Superconductors, a D-shaped double pancake is transferred to the laser welding station (background). Seventy double pancakes—or seven per coil—were produced in this facility. The winding of a double pancake is the first step in the production of a toroidal field coil. (Click to view larger version...)
At ASG Superconductors, a D-shaped double pancake is transferred to the laser welding station (background). Seventy double pancakes—or seven per coil—were produced in this facility. The winding of a double pancake is the first step in the production of a toroidal field coil.
From the completion of the first full-size prototype in 2013, through the series winding of 70 double pancakes, it has been a highly technical industrial journey.

The winding of the double pancakes is considered the most challenging phase of magnet coil fabrication, consisting of bending conductor lengths along a D-shaped double spiral trajectory. As the conductor must fit precisely inside the radial plate groove, it is vital to control its trajectory in the double pancake and in the groove of the radial plate with extremely high accuracy. The trajectory of the conductor, in particular, must be controlled with an accuracy as high as 0.01 percent.

The completion of the 70 double pancakes is an important milestone for the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, and its suppliers Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcción (project management, quality assurance, and planning); ASG Superconductors SpA (design of process, plant and tooling, manufacturing); and Elytt Energy SL (design and manufacturing of turn insulation, pancake impregnation plant/tooling), and radial plate manufacturers CNIM and SIMIC.

See the full report on the European Domestic Agency website.

return to the latest published articles