Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Poloidal field magnets | The last ring

    As the massive ring-shaped coil inched its way from the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility, where it was manufactured, to the storage facility nearby where i [...]

    Read more

  • Heat rejection | White "smoke" brings good news

    Like a plume of white smoke rising from a cardinals' conclave to announce the election of a new pope, the tenuous vapour coming from one of the ITER cooling cel [...]

    Read more

  • WEC 2024 | Energy on centre stage

    The global players in the energy sector convened in Rotterdam last week for the 26th edition of the World Energy Congress (WEC). The venue was well chosen, wit [...]

    Read more

  • Fusion world | The EU blueprint for fusion energy

    The EU Blueprint for Fusion Energy workshop, convened by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, brought together key stakeholders in the fiel [...]

    Read more

  • Neutral beam injection | ELISE achieves target values for ITER

    Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, have generated the ion current densities required for ITER neutral beam injecti [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

On-site coil manufacturing

Two more to go!

In the European winding facility on site, two large poloidal field coils have already left the manufacturing line. Two others are currently advancing through the complex, multistage fabrication process that begins with the unwinding of conductor spools and ends with a fully tested component ready for assembly.

Fifty-six spools, each weighing 16 tonnes and containing 900 metres of jacketed superconducting cable, have already been used in the onsite manufacturing of the ITER poloidal field coils. (Click to view larger version...)
Fifty-six spools, each weighing 16 tonnes and containing 900 metres of jacketed superconducting cable, have already been used in the onsite manufacturing of the ITER poloidal field coils.
The first two coils were 17 metres in diameter—poloidal field coil #5 (finalized in April 2021), and poloidal field coil #2 (finalized in December 2021). Two significantly larger coils (⌀ 24 m) are presently the focus of the European team on site—the "middle coils" of the six ring-coil suite (PF3 and PF4).

At the south end of the vast manufacturing facility, a 16-tonne spool is lifted out of its transport frame and inserted into the bespoke tool that will unwind the 900 metres of jacketed conductor it contains. The operation is the first act of the coil fabrication process and it has been repeated 56 times already since the first "dummies" were produced back in 2016.

Procured by China and manufactured by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science (ASIPP), the conductor is destined for poloidal field coil #3 (PF3). In order to form the "double pancakes" that each coil is built from, conductor lengths are fed from two spools simultaneously ("two-in-hand" winding) to be unwound, straightened, cleaned, curved to the correct degree and wrapped in insulating fibre tape. PF3, which will be assembled from a stack of 8 double pancakes, requires approximately 14 kilometres of cable.

Europe is responsible for the fabrication of 5 out of 6 poloidal field coils required by the ITER Tokamak. Procured by Russia, PF1 is close to finalization at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in Saint-Petersburg. (Click to view larger version...)
Europe is responsible for the fabrication of 5 out of 6 poloidal field coils required by the ITER Tokamak. Procured by Russia, PF1 is close to finalization at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in Saint-Petersburg.
The double pancake windings are then hardened into a rigid assembly by vacuum pressure impregnation with epoxy resin. Three double pancakes for PF3 are currently at various stages of resin impregnation, while a fourth is still on the winding table.

Further down the assembly line, eight double pancakes for poloidal field coil #4 (PF4) have already been stacked. The teams are preparing the coil for ground insulation, an operation which consists in wrapping the stack with nine successive layers of glass-Kapton tape that insulate it electrically.

The delicate wrapping operations are done by hand, as the helium inlets situated at regular intervals do not allow the automation of the process. Following ground insulation, the coil pack will undergo impregnation, further assembly (clamps, protection covers, pipes...) and finally cold testing.

Prior to final resin impregnation, coils are manually wrapped with nine successive layers of glass-Kapton tape that provide efficient electrical insulation. (In the photo: PF4) (Click to view larger version...)
Prior to final resin impregnation, coils are manually wrapped with nine successive layers of glass-Kapton tape that provide efficient electrical insulation. (In the photo: PF4)
When PF4 and PF3 are delivered to ITER, in mid-2023 and mid-2024 respectively, Europe will have completed its poloidal field coil procurement package.¹

¹ Europe is responsible for poloidal field coils #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6. (PF1 is procured by Russia.) Due to schedule constraints and space availability, PF6 was manufactured in China under a European contract.

return to the latest published articles