CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING OF THE ACTIVE CONTROL COIL CABLE AND CONNECTION FOR NET/ITER

The work presented in this paper has been performed by Ansaldo Ricerche under NET contract with the participation of EM-LMI and of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Genova. The completion of the activities related to the Active Control Coil development has focused on the following main aspects: a) Cable bending and optimal cable termination choice; b) thermal and weld/cut tests; c) electrical interface prototype testing and full-scale connection construction after an evaluation of the various design proposals. The most significant results can be summarized as follows: a) bending of the cable to a 90° angle with a very small radius is feasible by removing jacket and insulation locally, bending bare copper and rewrapping the elbow by an “add and shake” method, b) Full thermal and electrical tests of cable and connection have given satisfactory results and show that this concept is adequate to be selected for the reactor. c) A flexible connnection design with water cooled “braids in bellows” is proposed; assessment of vacuun brazing as the joining technology has been performed on preliminary partial mock-ups; A full scale connection prototype is being built and needs electrical, thermal, fatigue but overall remote maintenance tests.