Manufacture, testing and quality assurance of cast stainless steel headers for the CIEL pump limiter of Tore Supra

The Tore Supra tokamak is a fusion device which has been in operation since 1988. Its main features are its superconducting toroidal magnet and its actively cooled first wall. Tore Supra is devoted to the study of physics and technology of long plasma discharges. Its actively cooled first wall is able to remove the energy deposited from the plasma during a very long pulse regime (several hundred seconds). A major upgrade of the Tore Supra in-vessel components, the CIEL project (French Acronym of Composants Internes Et Limiteur), has been implemented and is in operation since 2001. This paper describes the experience gained from the manufacturing of cast stainless steel hydraulic structures supporting the toroidal pump limiter, the main component of the CIEL project, as well as the technical description of this structure, the associated specifications, the difficulties encountered during manufacture and the repair possibilities.