Magnetic Determination of the Current Center Line for the Superconducting ITER TF Coils

The ITER tokamak includes 18 superconducting D-shaped toroidal field (TF) coils. Unavoidable shape deformations as well as assembly errors will lead to error fields in the final configuration, which can be modeled with the knowledge of the current center line (CCL). We are building a room temperature magnetic measurement system using low-frequency ac excitation current through the TF coil and arrays of pickup coils, fabricated with printed circuit board technology. Deviations from the expected shape of the CCL will be obtained by comparing the amplitude of magnetic flux measured at several locations around the perimeter of the TF coil, with values computed assuming the nominal current distribution. We present experimental results obtained with a cable placed in one-turn groove of a full scale radial plate.