World's First Compact Fusion Energy Experimental Device BEST TF Coil Cases Delivered in Batch

On September 27, the completion and shipment ceremony for the batch components of the toroidal field (TF) coil cases of the world's first compact fusion energy experimental device——the Burning Experimental Fusion Test (BEST)——was held at the Deyang, Sichuan base of China National Machinery Industry Heavy Equipment Group Co., Ltd. With this, all 8 BEST TF coil case batch components undertaken and developed by Sinomach Heavy Equipment have been fully manufactured and assembled, and successfully shipped for delivery.

Song Yuntao, Party Secretary and Director of the Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Han Xiaojun, Party Secretary and Chairman of Sinomach Heavy Equipment, delivered speeches at the ceremony respectively. Liu Zhihong, Deputy Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Institute of Plasma Physics and Deputy General Manager of Fusion New Energy (Anhui) Co., Ltd., and Wang Shechang, Member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Sinomach Heavy Equipment, attended the ceremony; Qi Xiaohu, Deputy Chief Engineer of Erzhong (Deyang) Heavy Equipment Co., Ltd. (Erzhong Equipment), a subsidiary of Sinomach Heavy Equipment, presided over the shipment ceremony, and the Heavy Machinery Company of Erzhong Equipment presented the project development summary report.

The TF coil case (Toroidal Field Coil Case) is one of the most core superconducting magnet structural support components in the tokamak magnetic confinement system. It is required to serve safely over the long term under extremely low temperatures (4.2 K liquid helium temperature range), ultra-strong alternating electromagnetic fields, and alternating mechanical stress environments of giant Lorentz forces at the tens-of-thousands-of-tons level. It imposes extremely stringent technical specification requirements on the ultra-high strength and toughness of materials, extremely low magnetic permeability, fatigue resistance, and welding deformation control of large components. From undertaking the preliminary components of the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion Technology (CRAFT) in 2020, to winning the bid for the first BEST test piece in 2023, and then signing 8 batch contracts in 2025 with all completed and shipped today, Sinomach Heavy Equipment has successfully broken the “bottleneck” that had long constrained China's manufacturing of high-magnetic-field coil support cases. After these core components are delivered and put in place, they will directly serve the main machine engineering integration and final assembly of the BEST compact fusion energy experimental device, laying a solid high-end manufacturing foundation for China's controllable nuclear fusion to advance from scientific experiments to engineering demonstration and commercial operation.