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Russia

The top ring is on its way

7 Nov 2022 - ITER Russia

After a ceremonial launch at the Sredne Nevsky shipyard in Saint Petersburg, ITER's smallest ring-shaped magnet—poloidal field coil #1 (PF1)—has been loaded on a transport vessel for shipment to ITER.

PF1_ships_1.jpg
On 1 November 2022, the 200-tonne magnet PF1 was lowered from the building where it was manufactured in the Sredne Nevsky Shipyard, Saint Petersburg, to the Neva River. It was then reloaded on a transport vessel at the port of Bronka for shipment to ITER.
On 1 November, a small crowd had gathered to witness the historic departure of the component from the factory, including representatives from the Russian State Duma, Rosatom, the ITER Organization, and city officials. 

"This event is of enormous importance both for domestic enterprises that participated in the manufacture of this most complex component of the future thermonuclear reactor, and for the entire project as a whole," said Anatoly Krasilnikov, director of the Russian Domestic Agency for ITER. "This is an outstanding result of many years of fruitful, well-coordinated work of leading Russian institutes and industrial enterprises, a spectacular demonstration of our scientific and technological potential." 

Six ring-shaped poloidal field coils will be positioned horizontally outside of the ITER vacuum vessel and toroidal field magnet system to shape the plasma and contribute to its stability by "pinching" it away from the walls. With a combined weight of approximately 1,800 tonnes and diameters ranging from 9 metres to 24 metres, the poloidal field coil system is one of the three major magnetic systems of the ITER device.

The coils are built from layers of niobium-titanium superconductor wound into double layers called pancakes. The work to build eight double pancakes for PF1 was carried out in Russia between 2016 and 2019. The coil impregnation phase followed, and in March 2022, the magnet passed all factory acceptance tests. The most important technologies and equipment for the manufacture of the coil were developed at JSC NIIEFA (Rosatom State Corporation), while manufacturing was carried out at the Sredne Nevsky Shipyard (JSC SNSZ) in Saint Petersburg.

PF1 is one of the 25 systems included in the sphere of responsibility of the Russian Federation within the framework of the ITER Project.

The PF1 coil (diameter 9 m, weight 200 tonnes) is one of six ITER poloidal field coils that will shape the plasma and contribute to its stability by "pinching" it away from the walls. It is the smallest of the six, and the last to be installed in the assembly sequence.
Anatoly Krasilnikov, head of the Russian Domestic Agency for ITER, speaks to the crowd on 1 November 2022. Also present in the photo are (from left to right): Vladimir Seredokho, Director General of the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard; Mikhail Romanov, Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Regulations and Organization of Work of the Russian State Duma; Anatoly Poveliy, Vice-Governor of Saint Petersburg; Vyacheslav Pershukov, Special representative of the Rosatom State Corporation for international and scientific and technical projects, and ITER Council Member; Alexander Alekseev, Senior Advisor for Tokamak Engineering at the ITER Organization; and Yulia Logvinenko, Head of the Administration of the Kolpinsky District of Saint Petersburg.
The later stages of coil fabrication (impregnation and final assembly) took place on a multi-stage assembly platform built atop a stationary barge. After the coil was factory acceptance tested and packaged for shipment, it could be lowered directly to the river and transported to the shipping port. (See more at: https://www.iter.org/newsline/-/2541.)
The coil is tightly wrapped for its travel to Fos-sur-Mer port, in the south of France, and subsequent road journey to ITER.
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