FPN12-49

ITER Magnet Progress

November 6, 2012

One of the first systems to be manufactured in line with the ITER Organization (IO) Integrated Schedule Plan is the superconductor for the ITER magnet system. The Russian Toroidal Field (TF) conductor with strands were tested in the SULTAN facility by Centre de Recherches en Physique des Plasmas- Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CRPP-EPFL) in late September — early October 2012. This is the fourth Russian sample to be tested in SULTAN but the first sample containing two sections of conductor made of real production length which will be used to manufacture real TF coils for the machine.

The results obtained with the Russian sample show very good agreement with results of previous samples, which demonstrated the relatively good stability of the conductor during electromagnetic cycling, as well as its good durability during the warm-up/cool-down procedure.

Testing the latest sample is viewed by the IO as a very important milestone which completed the pre-production phase of the TF conductor procurement process. This means the final production stage can now proceed. At the same time, it opens the way to start shipping the real conductors to the coil manufacturer so they can be used to make coils for the ITER tokamak.

For further information on ITER progress see http://www.iter.org