ITER and industry push robotics into new territory

2026-05-28 - The extraction of the sector module from tooling is a pivotal moment in a lift operation.

2026-05-28 - A team member from the CNPE Consortium, the international industrial partnership that is the principal contractor for tokamak assembly, monitors the sector as it is lowered into the pit.

2026-05-27 - Five sector modules are now in the ITER tokamak pit. Vacuum vessel sector module #4 was installed in an overnight operation from 26 to 27 May 2026.

2026-05-27 - With the fifth sector module in place, 200 degrees of the plasma chamber are now in position.

2026-05-27 - The sector module nears the end of its 12-hour journey from tooling to a temporary position 500 mm above its final landing spot.

2026-05-26 - 7:00 a.m. on lift day: a pre-lift briefing gathers all of the people who will be managing the first phase of the lift operation.

2026-05-26 - In a two-day operation that begins on Tuesday 26 May, assembly teams are transporting vacuum vessel sector module #4 to the Tokamak Building and lowering it into the tokamak pit. When completed, five of nine sector modules—over half—will be in place.

2026-05-21 - The first D-shaped toroidal field coil is successfully cooled down to 4 Kelvin (K), or minus 269 °C, over a 12-day period in May 2026 in the ITER magnet cold test facility and high-current testing is expected to begin shortly. The tests will provide essential information on magnet behaviour, cryogenic performance, electrical interfaces, instrumentation, and the critical joints that connect the layers of wound superconductor inside of the magnet coils.

2026-05-21 - The first toroidal field coil has been successfully cooled down to 4 K (minus 269 °C) in the ITER magnet cold test facility and high current tests will begin soon.

2026-05-21 - Activities have begun at the ITER magnet cold test facility, where selected superconducting magnets will be tested at their operating temperature of 4 K and up to full current before installation in the machine.

2026-05-21 - Approximately 300 students take part in the 2026 ITER Robots competition in Pertuis, France, on Thursday 21 May. Each school team had built a Lego robot and programmed it to perform ITER-like robotics tasks such as grasping, lifting and positioning.

2026-05-20 - Members of the ITER Council Management Advisory Committee (MAC) visit key infrastructure on the ITER site, including the control room where operators are managing the cooldown of the first magnet in the ITER magnet cold test facility.

2026-05-13 - The rotation took just under 12 hours, beginning at dawn on 13 May and concluding shortly before 6 p.m.

2026-05-13 - Sector #3, as it is flipped over to expose its second side.