The manufacture and demanding testing of the sixth and final 110-ton superconducting magnet for the ITER tokamak fusion machine’s 60-foot-tall (18.3-meter) central solenoid was completed on May 7 at the General Atomics Magnet Technologies Center in Poway, California.
This sixth production module is the last module needed to complete the central solenoid stack of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). Four central solenoid modules have already been delivered by U.S. ITER, and stacked on a dedicated assembly platform at the ITER construction site in Cadarache, France. The fifth module is on its way, and the sixth will be shipped in the coming months (a seventh module will be fabricated as a back-up). The U.S. is also delivering an “exoskeleton” support structure that will enable the central solenoid to withstand the extreme forces it will generate.
The central solenoid is the heart of the ITER tokamak and serves as a critical element in the ITER magnet system. The central solenoid induces the majority of the magnetic flux change needed to initiate the plasma, generate the plasma current, and maintain this current during the burn time. Another term for central solenoid would be cylindrical electromagnet.
