Full scale prototype research and development of the ITER PF converter unit

This paper presents the design, manufacturing and testing of the full scale prototype of the ITER Polodial Field Converter Unit (PFCU) for the coil power supply system of the ITER superconducting Tokamak. The PFCU is mainly composed of converter transformer, converter module, external bypass and dc reactors with a rated capacity of 82 MVA and a rated dc current of 55 kA, which is also required for the Fault Suppression Capability (FSC) criterion. After the completion of the preliminary design of the PF converter package in summer 2012, the detailed prototype structure design, manufacture of the PFCU were launched and completed at the end of 2013. Then the following main type tests, including short circuit current test and temperature rise test on the main components of the PFCU, have been done on the ITER power supply test platform at ASIPP site and are described in this paper. And the PFCU integration test has also been done to verify the system operation performance. The prototype test results are well in compliance with the design. It indicates that the full scale prototype of PFCU can fully meet the design requirements of ITER PF converter system.