13th toroidal field coil arrives from Europe
Thirteen toroidal field coils have already arrived on site including coil #17 (TF17), delivered last Friday 6 May by the European Domestic Agency. Ninety-nine percent of the total manufacturing scope has been completed.
Once at ITER, the toroidal field coils are either stored or moved to a staging area to be prepared for handling. The teams carry out a variety of mechanical preparatory activities such as the welding of cooling pipes and the attachment of clamps/interfaces.
When their turn comes in the assembly sequence, the D-shaped coils are associated (by pair) with one vacuum vessel sector. Coils TF12 and TF13, from Japan, were the first to be assembled with vacuum vessel sector #6 on specialized tooling in the Assembly Hall, forming the first sub-section of the ITER vacuum vessel. (See related article in this issue.) A second sub-assembly operation is underway that will associate European coil TF9 and Japanese coil TF8 with vacuum vessel sector #1(7).
The delivery of six more coils—three from Europe and three from Japan—will complete the toroidal field coil procurement program.