Manufacture of mineral-insulated conductor for ITER prototype ELM and VS coil

Highlights: • Compaction method is successfully developed for MIC manufacture. • Manufactured MICs show well controlled outer diameter and good electrical properties. • Insulation resistance of all the MICs is higher than 100 GΩ@DC 2500 V. - Abstract: An ITER Organization (IO) Task Agreement (TA) "Final Design and Prototyping of the ITER In-Vessel Coils (IVC) and Feeders" is almost finished by Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP). ITER IVCs consist of edge-localized mode (ELM) and vertical stabilization (VS) coils. One prototype Mid-ELM coil complete with 19 brackets brazed with the conductors and one prototype 120° section of upper VS coil with structural components brazed to the conductors have been fabricated. Compaction method is developed successfully for the mineral-insulated conductor (MIC) manufacture. Approximate 110 m Inconel 625 jacket MICs for Mid-ELM prototype coil and 80 m stainless steel 316L jacket MICs for VS prototype coil were manufactured. Most of the copper tubes used for the MICs fabrication failed the ultrasonic testing (UT), but the jacket tubes have good passing rate. Manufacture processes and inspection for the MICs are presented in this paper