ITER's superconductor manufacturer visits ITER
3 Jul 2009
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Sabina Griffith
Arnaud Devred, ITER Superconductor Section Leader, explains the site layout to his guests (from left to right): Yukinobu Murakami (Technology Manager), Yasunao Yokota (General Sales Manager and cello player), Arnaud Devred (ITER), .Yoshiro Nishimoto (President), and Akio Kifuji (Sales Manager).
On Monday, Yoshiro Nishimoto, the President of the Japanese Superconductor Technology (JASTEC), and three of his colleagues took the chance to visit the ITER construction site in Cadarache. JASTEC is one of the two suppliers selected by the Japanese Domestic Agency to produce the niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) strands for ITER's toroidal field conductors. "JASTEC have just started to deliver our superconducting wire which is small but an integral part of the fusion reactor," said Nishimoto, "It was encouraging for me to have a chance to visit to ITER site at this timing and to imagine our contributions towards the future."
At present, JASTEC has produced 12 tonnes of Nb3Sn strands, which correspond to almost half the volume under contract.