In Russia, last toroidal field conductor jacketed

On 19 June 2015 specialists of the Cable Institute (JSC VNIIKP) jacketed and compacted the last production length of Russian toroidal field conductor at Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) jacketing line in Protvino.

 

The milestone marked the end of a five-year campaign to manufacture 28 production lengths, amounting to more than 120 tonnes of material. The sophisticated, multi-stage process involves strand production, cabling, jacketing and compaction. Conductor quality and the stability of parameters have been verified repeatedly through the testing of full-size samples at the SULTAN facility (EPFL, Switzerland) and by ITER Organization experts.

 

Fabrication of the Russian toroidal field conductor began in 2011. Many leading industries and research centres have been involved, including the Bochvar Institute, JSC TVEL, JSC ChMP, JSC VNIIKP, SRC IHEP, and the Kurchatov Institute. To meet the challenging task, a superconducting strand production line was created from the ground up at the Chepetsk Mechanical Plant (Glazov, Udmurtia); cabling equipment was installed at the Podolsk branch of VNIIKP; jacketing and compaction took place at IHEP; and final leak testing was performed at a facility of the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow.

 

The fabrication of the final toroidal field conductor length symbolizes the fulfilment of requirements by Russian industry, within the commitment made by Russia to the ITER Project.

 

After a series of tests, the conductor will be delivered to Italy for fabrication of ITER's toroidal field magnet coils. By year end, all toroidal field conductor production lengths currently stored at Russian facilities will have been shipped to Europe.