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Assembly

Long-term coil park

20 Sep 2021

Manufactured in China under a European contract, poloidal field coil #6 (PF6) was the first magnet to be installed in the assembly pit in late April 2021. Sailing the south China Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, it travelled more than 10,000 kilometres to reach the ITER construction site. For its successor in the assembly sequence, poloidal field coil #5 (PF5), the trip was much shorter: just a few hundred metres from the European poloidal field coil winding facility on site to the Assembly Hall and into the assembly pit. With the installation of this second ring-shaped coil on 16 September, ITER has achieved yet another major assembly milestone.

PF5_lift_from_ground_1.jpg
The first poloidal field coil to be produced by the European Domestic Agency on site at ITER—PF5—was positioned at the bottom of the Tokamak pit on 16 September.
PF5 was the first coil to leave the European production line in April of this year. From the start of coil winding activities in September 2017, to resin impregnation, final assembly, and cold testing, its realization was a meticulous, stage-by-stage process that required the expertise of a dozen companies and more than 150 people.

On Monday 26 July, the coil was moved out of temporary storage and into the Assembly Hall. A few weeks of preparation and rigging followed, and by 15 September it was ready for installation.

PF5_lift_from_rafters_1_small.jpg
Poloidal field coil #5 is the fifth major component to be installed in the Tokamak pit after the cryostat base, the cryostat lower cylinder, the lower cryostat thermal shield, and poloidal field coil #6.
At 17 metres in diameter and weighing close to 350 tonnes, PF5 is neither the largest, or the heaviest, of the machine's six ring-shaped coils. It is nonetheless an impressive component, whose planarity had to be maintained and guaranteed throughout the lifting and installation sequence.

Once lowered into the pit, the coil had to fit precisely on its supports, just above magnet feeder components and a few centimetres from the surface of the lower cryostat thermal shield. Early in the afternoon of 16 September, PF5 was its final "parking position," with all position requirements within tolerance.

Like its neighbour PF6, PF5 will remain in a temporary position for a few years. When all vacuum vessel sectors are in place, both coils will be raised to their permanent position (a move of approximately 2 metres for PF6 and 1.5 metres for PF5).

Click here to view a video of PF5 installation.

The coil has now reached its "parking position," where it will remain for a few years. When all vacuum vessel sectors are in place, it will be raised approximately 1.5 metres to its permanent position.
The coil slowly descends into the assembly pit. It will make a long pause for final metrology before being delicately deposited on its temporary supports.
Altitude 35 metres
The coil is now approximately 35 metres above its final position. Its diameter is just a few centimetres smaller than the lower cryostat thermal shield that is visible (wrapped in protective pink plastic) at the bottom of the pit.
Impressive
At 17 metres in diameter and weighing close to 350 tonnes, PF5 is neither the largest, or the heaviest, of the machine's six ring-shaped coils. It is nonetheless an impressive component. It is also the first to be realized by European teams in the on-site European winding facility.
Some twenty workers from the CNPE consortium, two crane operators and four ITER Organization supervisors were involved in the operation.
Lifting and positioning a 17-metre-in-diameter steel coil demands a perfect balancing of the lifting hooks and a constant check for planarity.
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