10 September Engineering Meeting

Presentation Material

Summary

The NCSX Project held a project-wide Engineering meeting on Tuesday, September 10.  Hutch Neilson discussed developments since the CDR in May.  The CDR report was very positive.  The spending profile had been adjusted to match DOE profile requirements, resulting in a slight increase in cost from $72M to $73.5M.  The first plasma date has been slipped 3 months to June 2007 to provide more schedule contingency.  Full funding ($11M) for FY03 is expected.  However, continuing resolution is likely to affect our planning for the start of the fiscal year.

Neilson and Reiersen discussed major milestones and plans for FY03.  The project will adopt a healed coil design as the basis for the Preliminary Design of the modular coils and vacuum vessel.  Physics is expected to propose a coil design on or near the end of September.  Engineering will update the Pro/E model of the stellarator core and develop design requirements for ancillary systems by the end of November.  The updated design will be used as the basis for the manufacturing development activities in the modular coils and vacuum vessel.  Contracts for the modular coil winding form manufacturing development activity are expected to be placed in December. Contracts for the vacuum vessel manufacturing development activity are expected to be placed in January.  A Preliminary Design Review for the modular coils and vacuum vessel is scheduled for April 2003.  A DOE Cost & Schedule Review will be conducted in concert with the PDR.  The Project is looking for Approval of the Performance Baseline (CD-2) by DOE in June 2003.

Bob Simmons gave an overview of Project plans and processes, describing the hierarchy of plans and what important information was provided in each plan.  Bob reviewed the Project Execution Plan (PEP), the Systems Engineering Management Plan (SEMP), Configuration Management Plan (CMP), and several lower level plans. 

David Williamson (ORNL) discussed technical plans and progress in the design of the stellarator core.  Engineering is working to provide more space between the plasma and first wall by defining a winding surface that has an increased minimum separation from the plasma.  Engineering is also looking to expand the vacuum vessel, moving it away from the plasma in regions where more space would provide a benefit for divertor operation. A simplified method for cooling the modular coils is being investigated which relies on cooling the clamps and conducting the heat in the winding pack to the clamps through a sprayed copper layer on the tee-section and a woven copper mesh on the winding pack. Structural analysis of the modular coil shell indicates that 1-in diameter bolts on approx 8-in centers are sufficient for normal magnetic loads. Eddy current analysis is being performed to determine the poloidal time constant of the winding forms. Pro/E models of the winding forms are being modified to improve shell thickness in places, and make the models easier to change in the future. The University of Tennessee is fabricating a small test coil using prototype conductor.  The coil will have VPI, testing performed at PPPL.  A preliminary tolerance study has been completed, which shows that softening the tolerances based on separation from the plasma (1.5mm near plasma, 3.0mm far from plasma) has minimal impact on the formation of islands. Using the spacers between vacuum vessel segments (located on the v=0.5 symmetry plane) to house cameras for x-ray tomography looks promising.  Physics has proposed combing PF3 and PF4 into a single coil to save space and reduce cost.  Engineering has proposed a new location for this coil, which has the same cross-section that PF3 previously had.  The structural design of the central solenoid assembly, which reacts the TF centering force, is being refined.  Two concepts are being considered – reacting the centering force by having the TF coils bear on the solenoid coils or by bearing on a separate structure.  Both options appear feasible. The study also showed that adding a wedge-shaped piece to extend the height over which centering forces are reacted, significantly reduces the stresses in the TF coil.

Please forward any questions or comments to mailto:reiersen@pppl.gov

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