Europe signs contract for toroidal field coil winding packs
23 Jul 2010
Toroidal field coils are composed of a winding pack and a stainless steel coil case. Each winding pack is 14 metres high, 1 metre wide and 9 metres long. The weight of a winding pack is approximately 110 tonnes.
ITER will operate with a system of superconducting magnets that relies on the toroidal field coils, the central solenoid, the poloidal field coils and the correction coils (see ITER image).
Europe will manufacture 10 of the 19 toroidal field coils for ITER, including a spare, while Japan is responsible for producing the remaining nine.
The European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy recently signed a contract for the supply of ten winding packs for the ITER toroidal field coils with a European consortium that brings together Iberdrola Ingeniería y Construcción SAU, ASG Superconductors SpA and Elytt Energy SL.
The signature of this EUR 156 million contract is a significant step for the ITER Project and an impressive technological milestone given the fact that winding packs of this size have never been manufactured before.