Those are 20 and 21 agreements made between ITER Project center in Russia and ITER International organization, concerning production and supplying of ITER blanket and vertical neutron chamber (VNC) module connectors by Russian enterprises. VNC is one of key diagnostic systems, which will allow demonstrating achievements of thermonuclear fusion in a reactor scale with the help of in-situ method. The complex, divided in two parts, will be located in a lower (divertor) and upper ducts of the ITER vacuum chamber. It is meant for neutron source profile measuring (thermonuclear capacity profile) of plasma during reactor operation. The responsibilities for the system development are allocated to the ITER design center.
The basic construction of the ITER reactor blanket support is a system consisting of four flexible towers, holding the module radially and three keys belonging to the vacuum chamber and restricting the module’s poloidal and toroidal movements. According to the conditions of the agreement signed, Russian specialists are expected to produce 100% of connection modules of the blanket (1760 in total) made of extra-high steel. The constructions’ production is planned for 2016-2020, their developer is NIKIET (One of Russia’s major centers of nuclear technology development).
Another project’s piece of news is that the specialists of the Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus (NIIEFA) conducted a successful test run of the resistor prototype meant for fast ejection of energy accumulated in the winding of the ITER magnetic system. The result of the scheduled examinations showed complete correspondence of the item with the ITER International Organization requirements.
The tested 1,0 х 1,0 х 4,5 meters and 4,5 tons resistor module prototype is one of the key elements of the system under the RF responsibility, meant for providing safe operation of the future installation by fast ejection of energy from the ITER magnetic system winding in order to protect it in case of switching from superconductivity to normal one. In total the NIIEFA specialists are to produce and deliver 1030 sections with resistors with a total weight of 1200 tons for protective energy extraction to up to 55 GJ.
