Fabrication complete on 1st of 7 central solenoid modules
When ITER begins operations in 2025, its plasma will be initiated by the largest stacked pulsed superconducting magnet ever built—the ITER central solenoid. The US ITER magnets team, based at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is overseeing the fabrication of the central solenoid modules, support structures, and assembly tooling. A major milestone was reached this spring when vendor General Atomics completed fabrication of the first of seven modules.
"General Atomics has done an outstanding job to reach the difficult and important milestone of completing module 1 fabrication," said Wayne Reiersen, US ITER Central Solenoid Magnets Team Leader. "This is the culmination of an eight-year effort involving concurrent engineering of the module design, the creation of a facility in which these powerful superconducting magnets could be built and tested, the qualification of the manufacturing processes, and the building of this first-of-a-kind module."