Europe to manufacture its first ITER component

Fusion for Energy (F4E), the organisation for Europe’s contribution to ITER, has signed a contract for manufacture of 62 tons of Chromium plated Copper strand, which will form part of the ITER reactor’s superconducting magnets and used to hold the heated gas known as plasma in position. This contract marks Europe’s first in-kind hardware technological contribution to the ITER project.

ITER will operate with a special type of high purity Chromium plated Copper strands with high conductivity at extremely low temperatures with a main function to limit the temperature inside the cable in case of superconductivity loss. Strands of such kind are mostly used in superconductors and cryogenic applications.

Superconducting and Copper strands are twisted together to build high amperage cables made of more than 1,000 strands. The cables are inserted in a stainless steel jacket and compacted to their final diameter in order to be used in the Toroidal Field coils of ITER. It is estimated that about 180 tons of pure Copper strands will be needed for these coils.

The contract for the production of the chromium plated copper strand was awarded to Luvata Pori Oy. Luvata is a global metals, manufacturing and technology company, with a workforce of over 8 000 people in 18 countries.

Background:

ITER is the world’s largest scientific partnership that aims to demonstrate the potential of fusion as an energy source, bringing together seven parties that represent half of the world’s population- the EU, Russia, Japan, China, India, South Korea and the United States. Most of the components that make up ITER will be contributed by the ITER parties “in kind” (i.e. by providing directly the components themselves, rather than contributing cash).
The EU, as host Party for ITER, will contribute up to about 50% of the construction costs and the other parties will each contribute up to 10%.

For more information visit F4E Procurement and contracts.