Epoxide insulation for Tokamak coils

The construction and testing of 12-tonne toroidal-field electromagnets for the Joint European Torus by Brown Boveri and Cie (Mannheim) are described. The principle of Tokamak confinement of a plasma which acts as the secondary winding of a transformer is explained. The Cu conductors are sanded and coated with epoxide adhesive before being wrapped in 7mm thick woven glass fibre, dried by heating under vacuum, impregnated and encapsulated in 1.2 tonnes of Araldite, which is solidified under pressure of 4 atmospheres and hardened for ten hours at 1500C. The prototype withstood tests involving 25,000 flexure cycles at 1.1 MN and 2 Hz, 2,000 quarter-hour 10kA heating cycles between 840 and 200C, and exposure to 500 million rads. 32 such coils were constructed at the rate of one every three weeks. (M.B.D.)