Old dogs, new tricks

2026-01-16 - After a three-day journey travelling mostly at night along the ITER itinerary, the spare central solenoid module is lowered onto pedestals at ITER before being moved into a building for storage.

2026-01-15 - During their voyage from the French port of Fos-sur-Mer to the ITER site, large components travel through a variety of French landscapes, including a protected marsh area (photo). Pictured is the last highly exceptional load expected from the United States.

2026-01-15 - The first toroidal field coil is in the magnet test facility and high-voltage commissioning of the power converter is underway to be sure the systems are ready to test the magnet at 4 K (minus 269 degrees Celsius).

2026-01-15 - This team is "infilling" busbar penetrations, making sure that the material around equipment crossing through wall penetrations meets the same safety and nuclear safety standards as the surrounding wall material. In this case, it's a bright blue elastomer, specially designed for ITER.

2026-01-15 - For every job, a bespoke tool. In this photo, the upending tool on the left is lifting a D-shaped toroidal field coil into a vertical position, mirroring the tool on the right, which has already completed the operation for the second coil in the pair.

2026-01-15 - The "production line" for sector modules is accelerating at ITER. Three completed sector modules were installed in the pit in 2025 and another is going in at the end of January 2026.

2026-01-15 - Another view of the near-finalized sector module #8. It took less than five full months for sub-assembly activities to be completed.

2026-01-15 - Sector module #8 is nearly ready to be transported out of tooling and into the tokamak pit. Visible in this photo are the central vacuum vessel sector, its wafer-thin thermal shield, and the toroidal field coil superstructure (triple dots).

2026-01-15 - Three of nine sector modules have been installed in the ITER tokamak assembly pit. A fourth is expected later this month.

2026-01-15 - Thanks to temporary staging platforms, teams can access every level of this vacuum vessel sector module in the tokamak pit.

2026-01-15 - Toroidal field coil #2 and toroidal field coil #3 have been raised to vertical in adjacent upending tools and are awaiting transfer to one of the sector sub-assembly tools to be paired with vacuum vessel sector #4.

2026-01-15 - Activity on vacuum vessel sector #1 is nearing completion and the component is scheduled to be transferred to the Assembly Hall at the end of January 2026. It is next in line for transfer to the tall sub-assembly tools where "sectors" are associated with other components to become "sector modules."

2026-01-13 - US Consul General Jessica Huaracayo and ITER Deputy Head of Construction Taka Omae look on as a 110-tonne central solenoid module is backed up through a narrow gateway at the start of the ITER itinerary. This is the seventh module to arrive from the United States and the last "highly exceptional load" expected as part of US procurement contributions.

2026-01-13 - The spare central solenoid module is the final American-made component qualified as a “heavy exceptional load” to be delivered to France. Marking the milestone are (left to right): Colonel Arnaud Estebe, François Genevey (Daher), Ines Bollini (Daher), Taka Omae (ITER), Jeff Parrott (US ITER), Jessica Huaracayo (US Consulate General), Loïc Borrelly (Daher), Sébastien Deceglie (Daher), Yanis Abdou (Esurveys), and Major Jean-Marc Rocher.