On September 22, the completion and delivery ceremony of the first coils of the ITER program calibration site of the International Thermonuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor and the key components of the French WEST device divertor was held. The first batch of coils and key components of the divertor of the calibration field undertaken by the Institute of Plasma Physics, Hefei Institute of Material Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, was officially shipped and delivered.
Hay Think learned on the spot that the first batch of coils in the calibration field have been successfully developed and will be delivered to the French ITER site. The key components of the divertor have been completed and will be delivered to the Institute of Magnetic Confinement Fusion of the French Atomic Energy Commission and installed on the French Tokamak WEST device.
The correction field superconducting magnet system is one of the important components of the ITER mainframe. It is mainly used to compensate the magnetic field error caused by the deviation of the longitudinal field and the pole field coil winding configuration caused by the coil manufacturing, joints, lead wires and assembly errors. The correction field superconducting magnet system has a total of 18 coils in 3 groups, and the manufacturing process is extremely complicated, involving superconductivity, low temperature, insulation, materials, welding, non-destructive testing, electrical testing and other multidisciplinary cross-disciplines, and the plasma institute undertakes all design process development And development.
Key components of WEST device divertor
Since signing the contract in 2010, the project team has honed its sword for ten years. Relying on independent innovation, it has mastered the high-precision winding of large-scale tension-free non-circular cross-section magnets, three-dimensional curved superconducting cable forming, thin-walled helium cooling pipe low-heat input welding, Key technologies such as ultra-high-power thick plate laser welding, ultra-low resistance superconducting joints, excellent performance stainless steel materials and special-shaped extrusion profile manufacturing, high-performance insulation impregnation, etc. The magnet has the characteristics of large size (7m×2.5m), small cross-section (192mm×192mm), high precision, etc. The overall contour accuracy of the coil is controllable with an error of 1mm, the winding has zero defect insulation impregnation, and the maximum resistance value of the superconducting joint is less than 5Naou and many other technologies and performance indicators are internationally leading.
The WEST device is an all-tungsten divertor superconducting tokamak being upgraded by the French Atomic Energy Commission. The divertor component is the core component of the WEST device, which plays a key role in its realization of long-pulse high-parameter operation and its main scientific goals. The components of the divertor directly face high-temperature plasma irradiation, and have to withstand the impact of strong particle flow and high heat flow. The service environment is harsh, the manufacturing process is complicated, and the requirements are high. In 2018, through international bidding, the Institute of Plasma was awarded the task of developing 456 tungsten copper components for WEST device. Relying on independent innovation, the project team broke through the bottleneck of mass production of high-performance rolled tungsten materials based on the research and development of divertor components of the EAST device, and mastered the key technology of tungsten, copper and chromium-zirconium-copper multilayer hot isostatic pressing composite, tungsten-copper composite The string non-destructive testing technology and the flexible pipe and probe flexible centering tooling testing method solve the problem of precise control of the gap size between the tungsten blocks and the quality of the welding interface during the high temperature and high pressure welding process of the tungsten-copper string. The heat removal capacity of the steel is increased to 20MW/m2.
By undertaking the international cooperation project of WEST device divertor, my country has become the only country in the world that has achieved mass production of tungsten copper components. The delivery of tungsten copper divertor components will promote the construction and operation of the WEST device into a new stage, and will also provide reference and experience for the development and mass production of ITER main engine divertor components. The correction field coil is very important for the operation of ITER. The development of the divertor component of the WEST device is an important cooperation project of the Sino-French Fusion Center. The 18 coils of the correction field and 456 tungsten copper string components of the divertor not only deepen the EAST, WEST, ITER, etc. The scientific and technological cooperation in the field of fusion devices and nuclear fusion research has circled and stringed up the long-standing friendship between China, France and Europe in international scientific and technological cooperation.