Second coil comes out of the cold

Following in the footsteps of poloidal field coil #6 (PF6), which completed all tests in December 2020, PF5 is the second ring-shaped coil (out of six) to check all the boxes. Procured by the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, and produced on site at ITER in collaboration with European contractors ASG Superconductors S.p.A., CNIM, Dalkia, Veolia, Mammoet, Criotec Impianti SpA, Elytt Energy, ALSYOM, SEA Alp, and SEIV, this 17-metre-in-diameter, 340-tonne coil will be ready for assembly in the ITER Tokamak pit when its turn comes later this year.

During thermal testing, the coil was inserted into a dedicated cryogenic chamber and cooled down to approximately 80 K (-193 °C), then cycled between cooldown and warmup.

To learn more about ITER poloidal field coils, see this page.