Russia has made a key contribution to the creation of the most powerful pulsed magnetic system in history, which is being developed for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). The Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in St. Petersburg has manufactured one of the largest components for the reactor, a poloidal field ring-shaped magnet with a diameter of 9 meters. Russian companies have also supplied about 120 tons of superconductors based on niobium-titanium alloy, representing 40% of the total volume required for the project. Another 20% of superconductors based on niobium-tin alloy have been produced in Russia as well. Russia is also responsible for special busbars that will supply current of the required power and voltage to the magnets, as well as upper port plugs, complex structural elements built into the vacuum chamber of the reactor.
All this is now part of ITER, the most powerful pulsed superconducting magnetic system in the world. Its weight totals nearly 3,000 tons; upon assembly, its central solenoid, the main coil in the system, will become the most powerful magnet in the complex, creating a field of 13 Tesla, which is approximately 280,000 times stronger than the magnetic field of the Earth.
The system works as follows. A small amount of fuel containing a mixture of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, is fed into the reactor chamber. Under the influence of pulses from the magnetic system, a powerful electric current is induced in the fuel, after which gas passes into a plasma state, becoming a cloud of charged particles. At the same time, magnets create a powerful magnetic field that holds the plasma in the center of the chamber, preventing it from touching the walls. External heating systems then heat the plasma to a temperature of about 150 million degrees Celsius, which is about ten times hotter than the solar core. These conditions trigger a thermonuclear reaction: the nuclei of light atoms merge into heavier ones, releasing enormous amounts of energy.
This project marks one of the most ambitious steps towards creating a safe, clean and virtually inexhaustible energy source of the future.
