Chinese Consortium Gets the Order Assembling Core Part of ITER Tokamak

count: [2019-07-29] [Close]

Chinese Consortium has got the order of ITER Tokamak Assembly which is officially called Contract TAC-1, as the ITER official announced the result in this June.  

The Consortium is formed by Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (or ASIPP), China Nuclear Power Engineering, China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Co., Ltd., Southwestern Institute of Physics, and Framatome. With the leadership of LUO Delong, director-general of China’s International Nuclear Fusion Energy Program Execution Center as well as the enormous work of the Consortium for the past two years, the Chinese Consortium has won the competitive bidding.

International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Project (or ITER) is one of the most ambitious energy projects in the world with 35 nations collaborating to build the world's largest tokamak. It has seven Members—China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States—being engaged in a 35-year collaboration to build and operate the ITER experimental device.

Now the giant machine has come to the point where the core part of ITER Tokamak is waiting to be assembled.

TAC-1 is core part for the ITER Tokamak. And complexity of the part itself makes the assembly extremely complicated.

The assemly is composed of several main subtasks, for instance, the assembly of Superconducting Magnet system, Magnet Feeder system, Cryostat, Cold shield and Diagnostics etc. It means there will be tens of thousands of components are going to be assembled on-site. To assure the successful operation of such a complicated machine, the assemble of its core part must achieve extremely high accuracy which leads it to not an easy work.

ASIPP has constructed and operates the EAST Tokamak, with which the EAST team of ASIPP has carried out intensive and extensive research related to nuclear fusion. Enduring hard work for several decades brings the team scientific and technical achievements and of course wins them the worldwide reputation.

TAC-1 assembly is the largest order they have ever got. In addition to TAC-1, they have received design and assembly orders from other scientific mega-facility, for instance the NICA in Russia, ASDEX-UPGRADE in Germany and WEST in France etc,.  (XING Yuanli reports) 

TAC-1 Assembly Task

 

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Nearly 10% of the procurement packages were undertaken by China, ASIPP is the main unit of this Chinese mission. After its first ITER procurement package contract was signed in 2009, ASIPP launched the R&D programs on the key technologies of the superconducting technology for the ITER project, such as Magnet Feeders, conductors, PF conductors, correction coils, power supply, and diagnostics. Most of the components from procurement packages in ASIPP were 100% made in china, both the quality and schedule were highly praised by the ITER organization. In 2013, by its excellent nuclear fusion engineering technology capabilities and reliable quality assurance capabilities, ASIPP won the construction task of ITER PF6 magnet through international bidding, which will be formally delivered to the European Union in 2019.

                 

China Joined the ITER Plan                    ASIPP for ITER Procurement

TAC-1 assembly is the most important and core equipment installation project for the ITER Tokamak device, and is the largest engineering construction project obtained through international bidding since China’s participation in the ITER project. TAC-1 assembly project for the Tokamak device contains Superconducting Magnet system, Magnet Feeder system, Cryostat, Cold shield, Diagnostics, etc. With high precision and strict standards, tens of thousands of components to be assembled on-site, more than 400 sub-tasks to be done and among these sub-tasks, more than 240 of them related to the superconducting magnets were manufactured by ASIPP.More than 40 years of technology experiences and international influences of ASIPP on Tokamak device applied “designed in China” and “Made in China” into the international scientific and engineering projects, experiences such as designing and installation of the key systems and components for the large scientific installations in Europe and the United States, high temperature superconducting current leads for large scientific installation NICA in Russia, ICRH antenna for ASDEX-U device in Germany, divertor for WEST device in France, and large superconducting feeder system for the national fusion laboratory in the United States, all these long-term core technologies accumulation from ASIPP has laid a solid ground for the CN consortium to successfully win the TAC-1 bidding.

Participation in the TAC-1 assembly project will provide a good opportunity for China to entering the engineering construction market in the European nuclear energy field, and also lay a sound foundation for China to independently build the fusion engineering experimental reactor in the future.