Nuclear Energy Projects - Fusion magnet R&D, manufacturing, tooling and assembly
The ITER Central Solenoid - building the world’s largest, most powerful pulsed magnet
Built and tested in the U.S. by General Atomics
made of (6) stacked, 110 ton module sections
diameter = 4.25 meters/14 feet
assembly height = 18 meters/59 feet
assembly weight = 1000 metric tons/1100 U.S. tons
length of coiled superconductor = 21 miles/33.6 km
magnetic field strength = 13 Tesla (280,000 x earth’s)
can lift a 100,000 ton aircraft carrier
operating drive current = 15 million amperes
operates at 4.2 °K / -269 °C
- final home for the 1000 tonne Central Solenoid (CS) magnet
- developed for build access to magnet top/bottom (167 tons in rotation)
- moving the 55 ton test magnet with an air bearing transporter
- 55 ton test magnet part of 102 ton rotating assembly
- 102 ton rotating assembly ready for turn over
- 55 ton test magnet/102 tons rotating (qualified with 215 ton payload)
-system can safely stop at any point in the rotation cycle
-delivering the first 110 ton CS Module to the turn over tool station
- 120 Ton Central Solenoid magnet part of 167 ton rotating assembly
-167 ton rotating assembly ready for turn over
-accelerated 4.5 minute inversion cycle for CS Module 1
- structural analysis by hand calculation and FEA
- weld joint sizing/stress analysis
- weld analysis/sizing to Eurocode/ASME lifting stds
- FEA/hand calculated weld sizing for strength vs. low distortion
-low thermal mass design for -269 °C service
- designed for manufacturing to reduce material removal induced distortion
- thick wall water cooled pipe in vacuum vessel
- completion of final cover/fill pass
- visual check for complete joint penetration
- roll forming compound (spherical) bends ±0.4 mm
- rotary drawing 90° corner bends
- high force electric push bending
- high force electric push bending
- process/equipment development for 0.5 mm magnet surface parallelism
- x/y/z axes + lifting/clamping testing
- equipment testing on mock up structure
- x axis travel tuning/calibration/qualification testing
- y + z axes radial cutting spindle testing / tuning / calibration / qualification
- G10 laminate cutting process development
- equipment installation / alignment on magnet top
- final CNC programming and validation
- process & equipment validation / commissioning
- final CS magnet module machined surface profile
- final CS magnet module surface slotting
- nitrogen strengthened austenitic steel sheet (Nitronic 50)
- small defect detection in autogenous welds - 1.5 mm Nitronic 50 sheet
- micro-crack detection in fine grain austenitic sheet (Nitronic 50)
- micro-crack detection in fine grain austenitic sheet (Nitronic 50)
- baseline scanning using refracted shear waves
- software scan planning followed by probability of detection validation