Japanese company produces first strands for ITER toroidal field conductors

The first 50 kg of chrome-plated niobium-tin (Nb3Sn) strands for the ITER toroidal field magnet conductor have been delivered for cabling. In total, the ITER toroidal field coils will require about 400 tonnes of Nb3Sn strands, whose production will be shared among six ITER Members: China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US. This delivery represents a very small first step (0.01 percent of the supply) on the road to construction, but it is the first completed component that will form a part of the future Tokamak.

On 28 November 2007, the Japanese Domestic Agency was the first to sign a Procurement Arrangement with the ITER Organization covering its 25 percent share of cable-in-conduit conductors for the toroidal field magnet system. In March 2008, the Japanese Domestic Agency awarded two contracts to Japanese companies for the supply of 20 tonnes each of chromium-plated Nb3Sn strands within the framework of this Procurement Arrangement. One of the companies, Jastec, completed the production of its first batch of strands in mid-December 2008 and carried out the required acceptance tests earlier this year.

Following the successful completion of these tests, Jastec received the required 'authorization to proceed' from the Japanese Domestic Agency, and was cleared to ship the strands to the cable manufacturer. All corresponding strand data was saved to the Conductor Database, developed by the ITER Organization as a common tool to assist the Domestic Agencies in monitoring their industrial contracts.