A 5-night journey for ITER’s longest and widest component

2025-10-06 - Their Imperial Majesties Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako of Japan visit the ITER exhibition at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka on 6 October. This marks Their Majesties’ second appearance at the Expo, following their distinguished presence at the opening ceremony held in April. Photo credit: Expo 2025

2025-10-06 - The 330-tonne customized cryostat manufactured in China for the ITER magnet cold test facility is brought inside after delivery. Soon, it will rejoin the other components of the test bench for facility commissioning.

2025-10-04 - This giant component—a cold chamber (cryostat) for testing some of ITER's superconducting magnets—took a full five nights to travel from the port of Berre to the ITER site given its exceptional size. It passed the gates of the worksite on Saturday 4 October in the early hours of the morning.

2025-10-01 - Looking into the 30-metre-deep, 30-metre-wide "assembly pit" where the ITER machine is coming together one unique component at a time.

2025-10-01 - Principal pit construction manager Mathieu Demeyere lifts the plastic cover that protects the interface between the thermal shield panels of the two sector modules in the pit. The splice plates connecting them will fit onto the protruding bolts visible at the centre of the image.

2025-10-01 - The “in-vessel staging” is clearly visible in this image. The four platforms, including one at the lower, divertor level, will provide a safe working space from which all areas of the vacuum vessel inner wall are accessible.

2025-10-01 - Diagnostics systems will be connected to the plasma chamber by way of small “bosses” welded to the interior surface of the sector module. The large recesses protected by yellow plastic caps are for attaching the blanket modules.

2025-09-30 - The flags of the ITER Members stand out against the concrete backdrop of the Tokamak Complex, in the waning light of a late September day...

2025-09-29 - A large component is making its way along the ITER itinerary this week, every night for five nights. It's a very large cryostat chamber destined for ITER's magnet cold test facility—the longest and widest load that has been transported yet from the port of Berre to ITER.

2025-09-29 - Handling operations are underway in the Assembly Hall to move 330-tonne D-shaped toroidal field coils to their rendezvous with sector #8. Once paired in tooling with its thermal shield and two toroidal field coils, sector #8 becomes sector module #8 and can be transferred into the tokamak pit.

2025-09-26 - At the World Atomic Week in Moscow, ITER head of Science & Integration Alain Bécoulet participates in a panel on fusion energy, part of a series of events organized around the theme "Science and Education: a Driving Force of Progress." How would mastering fusion energy change our lives? What specialists will be in demand in this field?

2025-09-25 - Students of fusion at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have the chance to ask about ITER updates directly during a visit and presentation by ITER head of Science & Integration Alain Bécoulet in September. Given the success of the event, the possibility of further lectures online is under investigation.

2025-09-25 - Representatives of academia, government, and the private sector in San Diego, USA, visit ITER in September as part of a larger trade mission to France. Home to General Atomics, the manufacturer of the ITER central solenoid, and the University of San Diego, at the centre of a number of new fusion initiatives, San Diego is becoming something of a fusion hub.

2025-09-24 - Deep inside a Tokamak Building gallery, two feeder elements are being connected. One of the most complex tasks? The creation of a superconducting busbar joint (pictured).