Development of conduits for the ITER central solenoid conductor

Hamada, Kazuya; Nakajima, Hideo; Kawano, Katsumi; Takano, Katsutoshi; Tsutsumi, Fumiaki; Okuno, Kiyoshi; Fujitsuna, Nobuyuki*; Teshima, Osamu*

Japan Atomic Energy Agency has developed JK2LB conduit for the NbSn conductor of the ITER Central Solenoid. Mechanical requirements for the CS conductor conduit are 0.2% yield strength of more than 900 MPa and fracture toughness K (J) of more than 130 MPa after a compaction and aging heat treatment (650 C, 240 hours). In the previous work, aged JK2LB conduit has shown high strength and fracture toughness enough to satisfy the requirements. As a next step, work was performed to determine specification of the JK2LB conduit taking account of cold work including compaction and winding, and to simplify its fabrication process. To simulate the cold work effect and aging, mechanical tests were performed at 4.2 K on laboratory scale (20-30kg) ingot samples. It was found that the sum of carbon and nitrogen content should be in a range from 0.11% to 0.18% to achieve the ITER mechanical requirements. To obtain a grain size of conduit as well as that of small ingot sample, applicable solution heat treatment temperature and holding time were studied. In order to simplify the billet production process, we confirmed internal metallurgical qualities of JK2LB cast ingot. Since significant segregation was not observed, we could exclude an electroslag remelting process. Based on above achievements, full size JK2LB conduits were fabricated and satisfied the ITER mechanical requirements.