Development and manufacturing of superconducting cable-in-conduit conductor for ITER

Russia as a member of "Cooperation in the Engineering Design Activities for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor" (ITER) takes part in manufacturing of superconducting cable-in-conduit conductor (CICC) for ITER toroidal field (TF) coils. JSC "VNIIKP" is responsible for Cr-plating, cabling and jacketing of TF conductor and develops complex technology for TF CICC production in RFHT. The technology consists of chrome coating, cabling (with compaction and wrapping) and jacketing (with insertion and compaction) operations and quality assurance (QA) procedure performance at every operation and on the finished conductor. There is a technological shop for plating of superconducting and copper wires with metal barrier plates. The shop includes the lines for surface treatment and galvanic chrome-coating, the autonomous system for water supply and regeneration of polluted water. The shop can produce about 100 km Cr-coated strands per week. Large park of tubular and planetary stranders, wrapping machine, compaction devices and other cabling equipment is used for production of sub-cables and cable of CICC. The jacketing line was designed and mounted in a facility 35 km south from Moscow during 1994-1996. The main technological and QA equipment is created, installed and tested. The jacketing line is fitted out with a take-up-pay-off unit, welding equipment, caterpillar, winch, rollgang (up to 1000 m), tube rolling mill, different tools and devices. The main steps of jacketing are assembling of conduit, control of welding joints, pulling cable through the conduit, compaction and conductor quality control. The description of the equipment and results of the trials are presented below.