“The repair campaign obliged us to rethink the way we work”

2026-10-19 - Looking up from the level of the supports under the machine. A new sector module is schedule for installation at the end of November.

2026-10-19 - We used to be able to know the number of vacuum vessel modules in the tokamak pit by counting the beams from above. No more. Two radial beams have been removed (on the right) because their support is no longer required. We confirm, the number of modules in the pit is still six.

2026-10-19 - This remarkable photo of the tokamak pit seems ... almost unreal. In fact, it's taken from the perspective of a port cell that is half-blocked by a vacuum vessel sector module. On the left, you see the outer edge of the module, with part of the toroidal field coil case structure (three round holes) and the sector thermal shield (thin pipes). On the right, you can see into the tokamak pit, where space still remains for future sector modules.

2026-10-18 - Vacuum vessel sector #2, which arrived on 2 October, undergoes visual inspection.

2026-10-14 - QST Japan, which already supplied 8 gyrotron units to the project on behalf of the Japanese Domestic Agency, has been commissioned by the ITER Organization to supply an additional 20 gyrotron systems for electron cyclotron heating. The first production unit of the additional order has been delivered for testing to the Naka Fusion Institute and is expected at ITER later this year.

2026-10-13 - High-voltage commissioning is underway for the poloidal field coil power conversion system.

2026-10-12 - The magnet cold test facility lid is lifted on Monday 12 October after the successful energization tests of toroidal field coil #17.

2026-10-12 - The new editor-in-chief of the journal Nuclear Fusion is ITER scientist Francesca Poli. “As we go into building many more fusion devices than in the last decades, much more research is being done on materials, on technology, and on operation. Nuclear Fusion needs to follow these developments and ensure the applicable research is being published, while also providing some leadership and guidance. This is a direction that the journal had already started and I'm really pushing for us to continue in this direction.”

2026-10-09 - These workers are unpacking looms and loops for sector #2 diagnostics and instrumentation.

2026-10-07 - The first divertor inner target production unit, completed by Research Instruments in Germany this month, is the culmination of more than a decade of development, prototyping and qualification activities coordinated by the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy (F4E). Research Instruments has contracts to produce 28 units in all. © RI

2026-10-07 - Radial beams are temporary lifting tools that support and stabilize sector modules throughout their sub-assembly and transfer into the pit. When one is removed, it means that the load of the sector has been transferred to gravity supports and the tokamak’s underlying support system, the crown. Good news for the progression of the tokamak assembly program!

2026-10-05 - With the delivery on 2 October of vacuum vessel sector #2, by Europe, all of the core tokamak components (cryostat, magnets, vacuum vessel) are on site. At the ceremony held to mark the historic moment, ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi takes a moment to marvel at all that has been accomplished.

2026-10-05 - Staff and contractors, representatives of the Domestic Agencies and industry, converge for a brief celebration on the worksite on Monday 5 October. The last large component of the ITER machine—vacuum vessel sector #2—has been delivered.

2026-10-05 - The protective housing is moved off of vacuum vessel sector #2 on Monday 5 October.