ITER begins operations at its magnet cold test facility

[Marlin]

https://www.ans.org/news/2026-06-01/article-8081/iter-begins-operations-at-its-magnet-cold-test-facility/

[News Wire]

The ITER Organization has activated a magnet cold test facility to evaluate superconducting coils at 4 Kelvin and 68 kiloamperes. The facility successfully cooled the first 330-metric-ton toroidal field coil to verify insulation, quench detection, and electrical performance. This infrastructure will eventually support private sector fusion research as the project prepares for its 2034 research operations timeline.

The ITER Organization has announced that its magnet cold test facility is now in operational mode, allowing the preinstallation testing of superconducting magnets at the fusion reactor's low operating temperature of 4 Kelvin (−269°C; −452°F) and full current of 68 kiloampere (kA).

It also announced, on May 21, that the first magnet coil to undergo testing—the 330-metric-ton ITER toroidal field coil #07 (TF07)—had a successful cooldown to the designated temperature. Tests of additional toroidal field coils, as well as a ring-shaped poloidal field coil, are planned.

Risk-mitigation and readiness objectives: No external test can reproduce the extreme operating conditions inside the ITER machine with 100 percent accuracy, the organization explained. Nevertheless, the tests at the magnet cold test facility—the program for which began in 2023—will generate useful information on magnet behavior, cryogenic performance, electrical interfaces, instrumentation, and joints inside the magnet coils. Such test-generated information is crucial for achieving ITER's...

Read the full article at ans.org:
https://www.ans.org/news/2026-06-01/article-8081/iter-begins-operations-at-its-magnet-cold-test-facility/