The two stainless steel rings constituting the housing for the conductor winding are now assembled and positioned inside the vacuum vessel at their nominal position.
To transform Tore Supra into WEST, the plasma magnetic configuration had to be changed from circular to “D” shape with “X point” as in ITER. The new configuration is obtained by installing poloidal field coils inside the vacuum vessel. The stainless steel casings in which the coil winding will be inserted have been mounted inside WEST vacuum vessel.
The first step was the introduction of the 60° sectors of the lower coil casing through an equatorial port, their fixing to the raised divertor supporting legs, their bolting together and finally the tight welding of the sectors. The 8 400 kg ring and its 12 legs were then lifted up and docked to the lower chairs fixed on the arms of the magnetic iron circuit outside the vacuum vessel.
The same operations were carried out for the upper coil casing but the assembly of the six sectors was performed on top of the lower casing using a dedicated tooling. In addition, the upper stabilizing loop sectors had to be brazed together inside the vacuum vessel and fixed to the casing before fixing the upper legs and lifting up the ring to its final position.
The building of the coil winding can now be started.
