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Wire & Cable ASIA – November/December 2013
Ridgway Machines has won a major
new contract from General Atomics, a
US-based technology innovation firm
in fusion research and technology. The
tape wrapping system will be used to
insulate superconductor coils for the
central solenoid magnet on the
international nuclear fusion reactor
ITER, which has been called the
largest science experiment in history.
ITER aims to demonstrate the
technical and scientific feasibility of
fusion power for commercial-scale
energy. The ITER tokamak machine will
be one of the most complicated
machines ever engineered – almost 30
metres high and weighing 23,000 tons,
it will house an estimated one million
components.
The central solenoid will be located in
the heart of the ITER tokamak, and will
provide the majority of the magnetic
flux change needed to initiate the
plasma, generate the plasma current
and maintain this current during the
burn time.
The ITER organisation was formed to
advance the development of hydrogen
fusion as an energy source. Fusion is a
safe, carbon-free energy source fuelled
by abundant resources (heavy
hydrogen from sea water) and can
produce high levels of power.
Partners China, the European Union
(EU), India, Japan, Korea, Russia and
the United States will implement the
project during its estimated 10-year
construction and 20-year operational
phases. Construction is now well
underway in Cadarache, France, and
operations are expected to begin in
the early 2020s.
The seven ITER members share every
aspect of the project, including
science, procurement, finance and
staffing, with the aim that ultimately
each member will have the know-how
to produce its own fusion energy
plant. Ridgway also provides
sophisticated taping heads to insulate
the toroidal field (TF) magnet coils
supplied by the EU.
Ridgway Machines – UK
Website :
❍
❍ The ITER central solenoid magnet
system
Ridgway’s role in the ‘largest science experiment’
Networking the islands
Alcatel-Lucent and Telkom Indonesia
are to develop a 3,000km optic fibre
network infrastructure to connect the
islands of Sulawesi, Maluku and
Papua in the Indonesian archipelago.
Capable of supporting data speeds of
100G per second, the system will
deliver an ultimate capacity of up to
16Tbit per second. The system is part
of Telkom Indonesia’s Nusantara super
highway.
Alcatel-Lucent – France
Website: