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

  • Tokamak assembly | Extra support from below

    Underneath the concrete slab that supports the Tokamak Complex is a vast, dimly lit space whose only features are squat, pillar-like structures called 'plinths. [...]

    Read more

  • Vacuum standards and quality | Spreading the word

    As part of a continuing commitment to improve quality culture both at the ITER Organization and at the Domestic Agencies, the Vacuum Delivery & Installation [...]

    Read more

  • Test facility | How do electronics react to magnetic fields?

    A tokamak is basically a magnetic cage designed to confine, shape and control the super-hot plasmas that make fusion reactions possible. Inside the ITER Tokamak [...]

    Read more

  • ITER Robots | No two alike

    More than 500 students took part in the latest ITER Robots challenge. Working from the same instructions and technical specifications, they had worked in teams [...]

    Read more

  • Data archiving | Operating in quasi real time

    To accommodate the first real-time system integrated with the ITER control system, new components of the data archiving system have been deployed. Data archivi [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

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