Procurement Arrangements signed between ITER Organization and Fusion for Energy in 2009:

• Poloidal Field (PF) conductor: signed in May 2009

This Procurement Arrangement covers the conductor supply for ITER's Poloidal Field (PF) magnets. The PF magnet system consists of six independent coils of different dimensions. The coils will be made of Cable-In-Conduit superconductors, in which a bundle of superconducting niobium-titanium (NbTi)- strands is cabled together, cooled by flowing helium, and contained in a square steel jacket.

Ten unit conductor lengths will be supplied by Europe for the lower coil PF6, consisting of about 50 tonnes of NbTi wire cabled and jacketed. In the meantime, a bilateral agreement has also been signed with Russia to perform the jacketing of all conductor lengths for the inner PF coils (PF1/PF6), while Russia will supply the finished cables in NbTi. Europe and Russia will nevertheless keep their responsibilities for the manufacturing of their respective conductors. The other conductors for coils PF2 to PF5 will be supplied by China.

• Poloidal Field (PF) coils: signed in June 2009

The PF coil arrangement concerns the supply of 5 Poloidal Field coils, which will be built in a dedicated manufacturing facility on the Cadarache site. The coils will be wound with conductors supplied by three parties and vacuum pressure impregnated inside the winding building. Final assembly of all support clamps and coil auxiliaries and cold testing are also included in this arrangement. The F4E Magnet Group is now starting preparation of the call for tender to manufacture these coils.

• Tokamak pit excavations: signed in May 2009

This arrangement aims to comply with the deepest excavation in the whole platform of the tokamak complex. The future tokamak building will reach a depth of 17 metres below ground level and measure approximately 92 x 130 metres.

The power supply system is composed of two solid-state power converters, the Main High Voltage Power Supply (MHVPS) and the Body Power Supply (BPS), whose combined operation provides the required voltage and current, up to 100 kV and 80 A. Extensive testing on full power dummy loads before delivery and after installation on-site, proved to be very successful as results show that the system delivers high accuracy on the voltage and excellent dynamic performances combined to high operational flexibility, high availability, low maintenance requirements, high efficiency (>97%) and low impact on the grid (power factor of 0.98 and low harmonic content).

Another advantage is the quick switch-off which limits the total energy discharged in an arc to less than 10 J and which therefore protects the gyrotron in a very effective way.

• Anti-seismic bearings: signed in May 2009

Anti-seismic bearings are square, laminated isolators with different layers of elastomer and incorporated steel plates, which ensure the absence of any possible seismicity in case of tremor. The ITER machine itself will not suffer any damage created by seismic activity because the buildings are protected by the bearings which are designed to absorb the shocks.

• Architect/engineer (A/E) services for ITER site construction and buildings: signed in May 2009

These services will start detailing the first buildings which will house the tokamak machine. The aim is to provide all civil engineering works linked to the housing of the tokamak, i.e. building design, trench excavations and design, as well as the co-ordination of all future contractors carrying out civil engineering works.
The next steps entail the opening of the offers for the A/E contract, followed by the F4E Executive Committee meeting in December to assent the selection procedure, and finally the designation of the winner of the contract.

• Power supplies neutral beam injectors: signed in July 2009

The image to the right shows the position and the size of the powerful neutral beams (top right) that form part of ITER's heating system. Although there are only two heating neutral beams foreseen in ITER at the moment, the third beamline pictured is a possible upgrade option. Below the heating neutral beams, in green, the diagnostic neutral beam is pictured.

Neutral beam injection is part of the ITER heating and current drive systems. Its purpose is to deliver a high-energy beam of neutral deuterium atoms that is used for plasma heating as well as current drive and current profile control. ITER will be equipped with two neutral beam heating and current drive injectors.

• Seven Vacuum Vessel Sectors: signed in November 2009

To be placed at the centre of the ITER machine is the stainless steel vessel which contains the plasma under high vacuum in its double 60 millimeter thick walls filled with neutron shielding plates and cooling water. The vessel is made out of nine torus-shaped sectors weighing about 450 tonnes and measuring 7 meters in length and width respectively, and 11.3 meters in height. Since the vessel is the first safety boundary of the ITER machine confining tritium and has to contain plasma with very low level impurities, each sector needs a good fit for joining to the adjacent sectors and access ports. The manufacturing process must control the exceptionally high number of welds and at the same time minimise the distortions by keeping very tight tolerance. In addition, the stringent Quality Assurance requirements from the French Safety Authorities must be followed.

The complex integration of access ports from the Russian Federation Domestic Agency (DA) and Korean DA and the shielding plates from the Indian DA provide an additional challenge to the companies in the call for tender due to be launched in early 2010.

• Detailed Design of the Steady State and Pulsed Power Electrical Networks (SSEN & PPEN): signed in October 2009

In the frame of the in-kind contribution for ITER, F4E has to provide the detailed design of the ITER Steady State Electrical Network (SSEN – PBS43) and Pulsed Power Electrical Network (PPEN – PBS 41). The SSEN supplies all auxiliary systems within the ITER site including the safety relevant loads – the systems that consume the most power are the Cooling Water System and the Cryoplant. The PPEN feeds the pulsed power needs of the Magnets AC/DC Converters and the Heating and Current Drive systems.

The detailed design will start in early 2010, following the signature of the Architect Engineer (A/E) Contract.