KSTAR ready for First Plasma

KSTAR, the Korean superconducting tokamak being built in Taedok, is expected to announce First Plasma within the next days. Three members of the ITER international team participated in the final commissioning phase of KSTAR last week. Luigi Serio, ITER Cryogenic System Section Leader, participated to the final cooldown and commissioning of the KSTAR cryogenic system. Also Inho Song, Electromechanical Engineer and Jun Tao, Power Electrical Engineeer, spent last week in the KSTAR premises witnessing the commissioning of the youngest member to the international tokamak family.

KSTAR's role is to establish the scientific and technological base to support fusion research, in particular for the construction, commissioning and operation of ITER. In particular the cryogenic system, despite being much smaller than ITER (between 1/10 and 1/40 depending if cooling power [kW] at 4.5 K or dimension of cryodistribution is taken into account), it is similar for features and components (4.5 K refrigerators, transfer lines, cold circulators, cold compressors, distribution boxes, etc.)