Compendium of ITER design principles taking shape

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.

2026-01-09 - In the Assembly Hall, vacuum vessel sector module #8 is now in the final stages of assembly. (In this photo, a last piece—a small segment of thermal shield—is being transported to the tall tool, left.) Sector module #8 is scheduled to be lifted into the tokamak pit at the end of the month.

2025-12-28 - China’s Domestic Agency has announced the successful completion of the ITER correction coils, with the final four coils being prepared for shipment to the project site in France. A total of 18 superconducting correction coils will be installed between the toroidal and poloidal field coils, where they will compensate for magnetic field errors arising from geometrical deviations caused by manufacturing and assembly tolerances.

2025-12-24 - The last superconducting module of the central solenoid procurement program—the seventh module, a spare—has been unloaded from its oceangoing vessel in the French port of Fos-sur-Mer. It will be delivered to the ITER site in January 2026.

2025-12-18 - The talent of the future is welcomed at ITER in December, with the arrival of the prize-winning Turkmenistan team from the 2025 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) for a special presentation of the project and tour of the site. The Turkmenistan team members are: Nurgeldi Annagurdov (17, second from left), Dovlet Annamyradov (17, fourth from right), and sisters Aysenem Kakamyradova (17) and Mahriban Kakamyradova (18).

2025-12-18 - A toroidal field coil (~300 tonnes) is on its way to the waiting upending tool. Once installed the tool, and the coil, will be lifted to vertical.

2025-12-18 - A huge toroidal field coil is about to be lifted off its staging frame.

2025-12-18 - The new sector in tooling (#4) needs to be paired with a set of toroidal field coils. In this picture, we see one coil already installed in an upending frame (near), and another about to be installed in the second tool (far).

2025-06-18 - Attached to its rigging, vacuum vessel module #6 has just rotated 90 degrees and is heading towards its final destination in the tokamak assembly pit. This picture was shot from the height of the overhead crane. (Photo Kevin Ballant)