FPN13-13

ITER Update

March 5, 2013

Tokamak Complex Construction
A major contract has been signed by the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, for the construction of the Tokamak Complex - a 360,000-ton edifice that comprises the Tokamak, Diagnostic and Tritium buildings. A French-Spanish consortium, VFR, has won the five-and-a-half year, EUR 300 million contract that also includes the construction of the ITER Assembly Building; the radio frequency heating building; areas for heating, ventilation and air conditioning; a cleaning facility and site services buildings; the cryoplant compressor and coldbox building; the control buildings; the fast discharge and switching network resistor building; and three bridges. This is a milestone of significant importance for the ITER project and for Europe, which is responsible for the construction of 39 scientific buildings and dedicated areas on the ITER platform. By year-end 2012, Fusion for Energy had awarded a total of EUR 1.8 billion in contracts for ITER, representing approximately 40 percent of the European contribution to the project.

The Tokamak Complex will be 80 metres high, 120 metres long and 80 metres wide. Over 600 people will be involved in the construction work, which will require some 150,000 m3 of concrete (plus 16,000 tons of rebar) and 7,500 tons of steel for the building structures. Concrete pouring is scheduled to be carried out between April and December 2013. The Tokamak Complex will be completed in time for assembly operations to begin in 2016.

The VFR consortium groups French companies VINCI Construction Grands Projets, Razel-Bec, Dodin Campenon Bernard, Campenon Bernard Sud-Est, GTM Sud and Chantiers Modernes Sud and the Spanish firm Ferrovial Agroman

US ITER Conductor Fabrication
US ITER and its vendors are moving into a new fabrication phase for the toroidal field magnet system for ITER. Cabling and conductor fabrication are now underway in New Hampshire and Florida for the niobium-tin wire produced in the US. All of this fabrication effort is in preparation for delivering the final product in 2015 to the European Union. As part of its contributions to the ITER project, the US is producing over 4 miles of cable-in-conduit superconductor; other ITER partners will provide the remainder of the conductor.

New England Wire Technologies in Lisbon, New Hampshire acquired and then carefully refurbished a cabling machine that could handle the weight of the spools and conductor. While typical spools are 12 inches in diameter, 40 inches is needed for the toroidal field conductor. So far, New England Wire has shipped both 100-metre and 800-metre test cables to Tallahassee, Florida, where High Performance Magnetics (HPM) will take on integrating the cable into the final cable-in-conduit conductor. The integration process at High Performance Magnetics required the development of a unique facility. Located next to a runway at the Tallahassee airport, an 800-metre-long jacketing line was built to handle the insertion of cable into stainless steel tubing. So far, High Performance Magnetics has successfully demonstrated compaction and spooling of a 100-metre sample length. The company is now preparing to test their process for the 800-metre lengths required by ITER. To achieve success, the jacketing line must maintain alignment and avoid excessive deformities as the tube is squeezed onto the cable. Past performance suggests that this is well within reach.

A vacuum vessel, produced by Alloy Fabrications in Clinton, Tennessee was delivered to High Performance Magnetics on 19 December 2012. The next step is to test the final product for any leaks in the narrow channel in the middle of the conductor that permits helium to be pumped through the magnets for cooling. To perform this test, HPM received delivery of a large vacuum vessel from Alloy Fabrications in Clinton, Tennessee on 19 December.

Robustness of ITER Central Solenoid Conductor
After an intensive effort to improve the capability of ITER's central solenoid conductor, the ITER Organization has concluded that a technically reliable and economically viable solution has been found. This successful result was obtained through a concerted collaborative effort on the part of the ITER Organization, especially with the Domestic Agencies of Japan and the US, and the international superconductivity research community. The key element of the solution was designing the conductor using a "short twist pitch." The Japanese strands using this technology confirmed the excellent results obtained during a preceding R&D phase and even enabled the qualification of two additional Japanese strand suppliers for the central solenoid conductor production.

The ITER central solenoid is a joint in-kind procurement: the US Domestic Agency is responsible for the central solenoid coil stack, while the Japanese Domestic Agency is responsible for the central solenoid conductor. The story of central solenoid conductor development is a good example of how scientific collaboration across many borders can lead to solutions for even the most extraordinary challenges of building the ITER machine—a device that pushes most technologies to their limits and calls for innovative solutions