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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Neutral beam power supply | Lightning-power voltage

    In January 2021, preparatory works began for the construction of two large buildings designed to accommodate a unique set of electrical equipment. A little more [...]

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  • MITICA | Cryopump passes site acceptance tests

    Cryopumps, which play an essential role in ITER, are not what one has in mind when picturing a pump. A conventional pump creates negative pressure to suck in fl [...]

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  • Construction progress | Bird's eye views, three years apart

    Taken three years apart (February 2020-February 2023) these two aerial photographs provide a spectacular illustration of progress on the ITER construction site. [...]

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  • Tritium breeding | Korea and Europe enter partnership

    The future of fusion rests on the availably of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium (one proton, one neutron) and tritium (one proton, two neutrons). Extracting deu [...]

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  • Diagnostic windows | Preserving the view and the vacuum

    Punctuating the inner surface of the vacuum vessel are many strategically placed windows that will be used by diagnostic systems to 'observe' the plasma. " [...]

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Of Interest

See archived entries

Ready to hand over to industry



This model of an ITER cryopump that the vacuum team appears to be hauling out of Building 525 represents many years of development, which were recently finalized at ITER. 

The "built to print" design of this eight-tonne component (shown here at 2:3 scale) requires no less than 250 technical drawings to enable it to be manufactured to the precise standards required for the ITER Tokamak.

Detailing the design down to the smallest bolt was essential for this high-performance component to fulfil its demanding functions on ITER. The vacuum team is celebrating its completion.
Tender actions by both ITER Organization and the European Domestic Agency, Fusion For Energy, have been issued for the manufacturing of the first full-size cryopumps, which will be assembled by industry and tested at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany.

"Cryopumps are among the most complex of ITER components," say both Vacuum Section Head Robert Pearce and Matthias Dremel, who led the final design phase. "These pumps are unique. They contain the world's largest all-metal high vacuum valve and operate with 4.5 K (minus 268.5 °C) cryogens in the harsh environment of the heart of the ITER machine."

After creating a high vacuum inside the Tokamak chamber, six torus cryopumps will have the responsibility of taking impurities and the helium ash out of the plasma, thus enabling ITER to sustain its full performance.

Two more cryopumps will be installed on the cryostat to maintain the low pressure required for the operation of the magnets.


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