Japanese delegation visit Superconducting Coils for Nuclear Fusion manufactured in Italy

Dr. Hiroshi Shirai, project leader of JT-60SA Tokamak, together with ENEA responsible, visited ASG Superconductors premises in Genoa, where the construction of the 9 toroidal field coils for the experimental nuclear reactor JT-60SA is under way.

The visit allowed to appreciate the progress in activity as well as the manufacturing processes, mostly automated, that have been adopted for the manufacture of superconducting coils. ENEA and ASG responsible officers have been able to show to the Japanese

Fig. 1 - Dr. Shirai, in the middle, together with ENEA and ASG responsible in front of coil n. 2

delegation the results obtained so far and to discuss the next steps of magnets production. The contract between ENEA and ASG, signed in September 2011, was characterized by an engineering phase of the production processes through the use of a full-scale mock-up that ended in the second half of 2013 with the official start of the production activities.

Of the 9 superconducting coils that ENEA should provide, as part of the agreement between Europe and Japan called "Broader Approach", three have already completed the acceptance tests and are about to be inserted in the steel casing before their shipment to Saclay, Paris, for the cold test and then to Naka site in Japan for the final assembly in the tokamak. The fourth coil is about to start the impregnation cycle, while  the fifth is in advanced stage of winding. The following figures show clockwise the status of the first four coils. Specifically, Fig. 2 shows the first coil inserted in the tooling for the insertion in the steel case, Fig. 3, the second coil produced before the dimensional measurements with laser tracker, Fig. 4 the third coil at the end of the impregnation cycle and Fig. 5 the fourth coil inserted in the impregnation mold.

 

Fig. 2 – coil n. 1 inserted in the tooling in case insertion

Fig. 3 – coil n. 2 prepared for dimensional tests with laser tracker

Fig. 4 – coil n. 3 at the end of the impregnation cycle

Fig. 5 – coil n. 4 inserted in the impregnation mold