Sample toroidal magnet conductor.

The US Domestic Agency US ITER worked closely with vendor High Performance Magnetics in Tallahassee, Florida, to complete fabrication and transfer 800 metres of sample toroidal field magnet conductor to the port in Charleston, South Carolina, from where it will be shipped to the European winding facility in La Spezia, Italy. Delivery was expected to occur in late June. The shipping procedures are exacting to ensure the safe delivery of the sample conductor, which weighs about 14,000 kilos--shipping crate included. "The coil of sample conductor is about four metres in diameter. It is stacked up like a Slinky and can actually move like a Slinky if we don't secure it," said Kevin Chan, a project engineer for the US ITER magnet systems.

The sample conductor, composed of non-superconducting copper strands, was produced in order to qualify the conductor fabrication processes; the production conductor installed in the ITER Tokamak will be composed of a mixture of copper and niobium-tin superconducting strands.

"There are a lot of unique aspects to ITER shipments, including international collaboration, dealing with a variety of shipping origins and destinations, different vessel types and selecting the best method for transportation with attention to costs, timing and risk," said Jeff Parrott, logistics and transportation coordinator at US ITER.