Design and manufacture of the US-ITER pre prototype joint sample

The US-ITER pre prototype joint sample which has been fabricated at the MIT Plasma Fusion Center is the first attempt to fabricate an optimized full size joint which can be stably operated in ITER required AC background fields at reduced coupling losses. This paper presents an overview of the joint's construction and fabrication, highlighting some of the procedural steps that have since been incorporated into fabrication of current terminations for the inner module ITER central solenoid (CS) model coil.