7 May (NucNet): The first shipment of components from China to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France, has left the Institute of Plasma Physics in Hefei and is scheduled to arrive on the ITER site on 5 June 2013.
An ITER spokesman said 737 metres of dummy conductor for ITER’s poloidal field coil number five (PF5) left the Hefei institute, near Shanghai, on 5 April 2013.
According to the procurement arrangement signed between the Chinese domestic ITER agency and the ITER Organisation, China will fabricate 64 conductors for ITER’s poloidal field coils, including four dummy conductors for cabling and coil manufacturing process qualification.
The Institute of Plasma Physics is responsible for all the poloidal field conductor fabrication in China. The fabrication of the PF5 dummy was completed there in 2011.
Luo Delong, deputy director-general of ITER China, said this is the very first batch of ITER items to be shipped from China to the ITER site in Cadarache and a significant further step for the ITER project.
Mr Delong said: “According to our schedule, we will now start massive production of conductors this year.
“Our goal is that all procurement items from China be supplied consistent with the ITER schedule and with ITER quality requirements.”
The ITER poloidal field coil system consists of a central solenoid coil and seven ring coils. The PF coils must provide the magnetic fields to confine the plasma and control its position during the various phase of ITER’s operation including plasma initiation, ramp-up, burn and shut-down.
They contribute the magnetic flux change to ramp up the plasma current and a part of the flux change to maintain it.
ITER – designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion power – will be the world’s largest experimental fusion facility. Fusion is the process which powers the sun and the stars. When light atomic nuclei fuse together to form heavier ones, a large amount of energy is released.
ITER is a first-of-a-kind global collaboration. Europe will contribute 45 percent of its construction costs, while the other six members to the venture (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US), will contribute equally to the rest.
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