Progress of the ITER central solenoid model coil programme

The world's largest pulsed superconducting coil was successfully tested by charging up to 13 T and 46 kA with a stored energy of 640 MJ. The ITER cent ral solenoid (CS) model coil and CS insert coil were developed and fabricat ed through an international collaboration, and their cooldown and charging tests were successfully carried out by. international test and operation te ams. In pulsed charging tests. where the original goal was 0.4 T/s up to 13 T. the CS model coil and the CS insert coil achieved ramp rates to 13 T of 0.6 T/s and 1.2 T/s, respectively. In addition, the CS insert coil was cha rged and discharged 10 003 times in the 13 T background field of the CS mod el coil and Ilo degradation of the operational temperature margin directly coming from this cyclic operation was observed. These test results fulfille d ail the goals of CS model coil development by confirming the validity of the engineering design and demonstrating that the ITER coils can now be con structed with confidence.