OREANDA-NEWS. June 30, 2008.  Russian has technical advantages under International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, ITER superconductivity section executive Arnaud Devred said after visiting Chepetsk Mechanical Plant, one of the world’s top three zirconium producers, on June 24–25 2008.

Devred said that it was a very important and positive fact that a plant producing materials for ITER was upgrading its capacities by purchasing new equipment.

He said that, usually, companies bought used equipment for modernization, but Russian companies preferred buying new one, which gave Russia a big advantage under the ITER project.  

Devred said that the visit to CMZ (part of TVEL Corporation) had shown that Russia was able to fully meet its obligations under the project.

The head of ITER Russia agency Anatoly Krasilnikov said that Russia was supposed to produce Nb3Sn superconducting cable for the toroidal field coils and NbTi superconducting cable for the poloidal field coils.

The contract for the supply of Nb3Sn has already been signed. The terms of the NbTi contract are being negotiated (quality, parameters, delivery schedule). Derved said that the next Friday they were planning to meet to discuss the terms of the contract.

He said that Nb3Sn was being made by six of the seven partners, NbTi – by three partners.

Now that all the partners have decided to optimize the cost of the project and to take all necessary measures to reduce the price, the ITER Organization has requested all the national agencies to carry out relevant analyses and to integrate their packages, Devred said.