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The ITER project design foresees Supercritical Helium (SHe) forced flow cooling for the main cryogenic components, namely, the superconducting (SC) magnets and cryopumps (CP). Therefore, cold circulators have been selected to provide the required SHe mass flow rate to cope with specific operating conditions and technical requirements. Considering the availability impacts of such machines, it has been decided to perform evaluation tests of the cold circulators at operating conditions prior to the series production in order to minimize the project technical risks. A proposal has been conceptualized, evaluated and simulated to perform representative tests of the full scale SHe cold circulators. The objectives of the performance tests include the validation of normal operating condition, transient and off-design operating modes as well as the efficiency measurement. A suitable process and instrumentation diagram of the test valve box (TVB) has been developed to implement the tests at the required thermodynamic conditions. The conceptual engineering design of the TVB has been developed along with the required thermal analysis for the normal operating conditions to support the performance evaluation of the SHe cold circulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cryoline system at ITER forms a very complex network localized inside the Tokamak building, on a dedicated plant bridge and in cryoplant areas. The cooling power produced in the cryoplant is distributed via these lines with a total length of about 3.7 km and interconnecting all the cold boxes of the cryogenic system as well as the cold boxes of various clients (magnets, cryopumps and thermal shield). Distinct layouts and polygonal geometry, nuclear safety and confinement requirements, difficult installation and in-service inspection/repair demand very high reliability and availability for the cryolines. The finalization of the building-embedded plates for supporting the lines, before the detailed design, has made this project technologically more challenging. The conceptual design phase has been completed and procurement arrangements have been signed with India, responsible for providing the system of cryolines and warm lines to ITER, as in kind contribution. The prototype test for the design and performance validation has been planned on a representative cryoline section. After describing the basic features and general layout of the ITER cryolines, the paper presents key design requirements, conceptual design approach, progress and status of the cryolines project as well as challenges to build such a complex cryoline system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nuclear fusion of light nuclei is a promising option to provide clean, safe and cost competitive energy in the future. The ITER experimental reactor being designed by seven partners representing more than half of the world population will be assembled at Cadarache, South of France in the next decade. It is a thermonuclear fusion Tokamak that requires high magnetic fields to confine and stabilize the plasma. Cryogenic technology is extensively employed to achieve low-temperature conditions for the magnet and vacuum pumping systems. Efficient and reliable continuous operation shall be achieved despite unprecedented dynamic heat loads due to magnetic field variations and neutron production from the fusion reaction. Constraints and requirements of the largest superconducting Tokamak machine have been analyzed. Safety and technical risks have been initially assessed and proposals to mitigate the consequences analyzed. Industrial standards and components are being investigated to anticipate the requirements of reliable and efficient large scale energy production. After describing the basic features of ITER and its cryogenic system, we shall present the key design requirements, improvements, optimizations and challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ITER cryogenic system is presently under design by a large international collaboration. It will start commissioning at Cadarache, south of France in 2015. The system is designed to provide an equivalent refrigeration capacity of 65 kW at 4.5 K for the superconducting magnet and 1300 kW at 80 K for the cryoplant pre-cooling stages and the Cryostat Thermal Shields (CTS). The cryoplant consists of three 4.5 K refrigerators and two 80 K helium loops coupled with two LN2 modules. Two 4.5 K modules are dedicated to the magnet system and a small one is devoted to the cryopumps and Pellet Injection System. One Interconnection box interfaces the cryoplant and a complex cryodistribution system which includes 5 Auxiliary Cold Boxes dedicated to each cryogenic subsystem. The ITER cryogenic system will have to cope with various normal and abnormal operational modes including superconducting magnets quench recovery and fast energy discharge. We will present the general Process Flow Diagram of the cryoplant and cryodistribution system and the operation requirements. The functional analysis of the cryogenic system will be performed leading to a proposal of the cryogenic control system architecture. The instrumentation and control requirements will also be outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cryogenic system for the Large Hadron Collider accelerator is presently in its final phase of installation and commissioning at nominal operating temperatures. The refrigeration capacity for the LHC will be produced using eight large cryogenic plants installed on five technical sites and distributed around the 26.7-km circumference ring located in a deep underground tunnel. The status of the cryogenic system commissioning is presented together with the experience gained in operating and commissioning it. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent commissioning and operation of the LHC String 2 have given a first experimental validation of the global thermal performance of the LHC lattice cryostat at nominal cryogenic conditions. The cryostat designed to minimize the heat inleak from ambient temperature, houses under vacuum and thermally protects the cold mass, which contains the LHC twin-aperture superconducting magnets operating at 1.9 K in superfluid helium. Mechanical components linking the cold mass to the vacuum vessel, such as support posts and insulation vacuum barriers are designed with efficient thermalisations for heat interception to minimise heat conduction. Heat inleak by radiation is reduced by employing multilayer insulation (MLI) wrapped around the cold mass and around an aluminium thermal shield cooled to about 60 K. Measurements of the total helium vaporization rate in String 2 gives, after substraction of supplementary heat loads and end effects, an estimate of the total thermal load to a standard LHC cell (107 m) including two Short Straight Sections and six dipole cryomagnets. Temperature sensors installed at critical locations provide a temperature mapping which allows validation of the calculated and estimated thermal performance of the cryostat components, including efficiency of the heat interceptions. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The largest cryogenic test facility at CERN, located at Zone 18, is used to validate and to test all main components working at cryogenic temperature in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) before final installation in the machine tunnel. In total about 1300 main dipoles, 400 main quadrupoles, 5 RF-modules, eight 1.8 K refrigeration units will be tested in the coming years. The test facility has been improved and upgraded over the last few years and the first 18 kW refrigerator for the LHC machine has been added to boost the cryogenic capacity for the area via a 25,000 liter liquid helium dewar. The existing 6 kW refrigerator, used for the LHC Test String experiments, will also be employed to commission LHC cryogenic components. We report on the design and layout of the test facility as well as the commissioning and the first 10,000 hours operational experience of the test facility and the 18 kW LHC refrigerator. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The LHC Test String 2 is a 107-m long superconducting magnet string representing a full-cell of the LHC machine. It was designed and commissioned at CERN in order to validate the final design choices and to investigate the collective behavior and operation modes of the LHC machine systems. It has been commissioned and operated since April 2001 and has accumulated more than 8000 hours at its nominal operating temperature of 1.9 K under machine-like conditions. We report on the experimental validation of the supercritical and superfluid helium cooling loops, quench propagation and recovery, heat loads, as well as on investigation of operational performances, advanced control techniques, process control, instrumentation and long term behavior under electrical and thermal cycling. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]