Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Fusion world | Japan and Europe inaugurate largest tokamak in the world

    It was 6:00 a.m. in La Bergerie, a former sheep barn located a few kilometres from ITER in the vast Château de Cadarache domain, and that had been converted [...]

    Read more

  • Stakeholders | ITER Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida

    In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | Season wrapping

    Although the travel distance is short, barely exceeding one hundred metres, the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #8 from the Assembly Hall, where it is presentl [...]

    Read more

  • In memoriam | Bernard Pégourié, physicist and mountaineer

    The worldwide fusion community mourns Bernard Pégourié, of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (CEA-IRFM), who passed away on 25 November following [...]

    Read more

  • COP28 | Fusion is making a splash

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, opened on 30 November in Dubai's Expo City—a sprawling conference centre built two years ago for the W [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

First plant components delivered to ITER

The trailer truck that pulled to a stop alongside the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility last Wednesday was nothing out of the ordinary—just a regular truck that didn't even qualify as a convoi exceptionnel.

The load it carried, however, was of highly symbolic value for ITER.

ITER personnel check the contents of the four crates delivered to the ITER site on Thursday 4 September 2014. From left to right: Ken Blackler, head of Assembly & Operations; Sergio Orlandi, director for Plant System Engineering (representing ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima); Piotr Pajak, electrical engineer; Joël Hourtoule, Electrical Power Distribution section leader; Gilles Consolo, electrical technician. (Click to view larger version...)
ITER personnel check the contents of the four crates delivered to the ITER site on Thursday 4 September 2014. From left to right: Ken Blackler, head of Assembly & Operations; Sergio Orlandi, director for Plant System Engineering (representing ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima); Piotr Pajak, electrical engineer; Joël Hourtoule, Electrical Power Distribution section leader; Gilles Consolo, electrical technician.
The four wooden crates solidly attached to its flatbed contained the very first plant components delivered to the ITER worksite: 12 high voltage surge arrestors supplied by the US Domestic Agency as part of the US contribution to the installation's steady state electrical system.

"This is a historic and meaningful moment," said Ken Blackler, head of the Assembly & Operations Division, as the crates were being unloaded into the building for temporary storage. "These are the first of many thousands of components to be delivered to ITER by the project's Members."

Key actors in the shipping and delivery of these first plant components included ITER's Yanchun Qiao, Transport & Logistics Responsible Officer, and DAHER's operations manager Laurence Prudhomme. (Click to view larger version...)
Key actors in the shipping and delivery of these first plant components included ITER's Yanchun Qiao, Transport & Logistics Responsible Officer, and DAHER's operations manager Laurence Prudhomme.
Surge arresters have the same function as a home surge protection device that prevents excess voltage from flowing straight from the grid to appliances or equipment in the case of a voltage surge.

With one big difference, however: whereas a circuit breaker or a fuse "interrupts" the current flow by creating a gap in the circuit, a surge arrester diverts the considerable amount of energy generated by a surge to the ground.

As their name suggests, surge arresters are designed to protect the transformers from a major voltage surge of the kind that lightning can cause. Four metres in height, they are calibrated to divert the considerable amount of energy generated by a surge to the ground. (Click to view larger version...)
As their name suggests, surge arresters are designed to protect the transformers from a major voltage surge of the kind that lightning can cause. Four metres in height, they are calibrated to divert the considerable amount of energy generated by a surge to the ground.
"The ITER surge arrestors are calibrated to short circuit whenever they detect a voltage higher than nominal (of the order of 400 kV), which would be the case if a bolt of lightning hits the switchyard," explains Joël Hourtoule, ITER Electrical Power Distribution section leader.

The 12 surge arresters delivered on 4 September are part of a large system that will be installed between the RTE switchyard and the transformers that feed power to the installation.

Twelve each of the following components—line disconnectors that physically separate the 400 kV RTE switchyard from the ITER installation, circuit breakers to protect the transformers, and potential and current transducers—will be shipped to ITER to equip four transformers fed by three-phase electric power.

The full set of components is expected at the ITER site before the end of the month for assembly and installation in early 2015.

For all the parties involved—ITER Organization, US ITER, the manufacturer ABB, and the logistics service provider DAHER who handled the shipment all the way from New York—this first delivery provided a concrete opportunity to test the administrative, technical, industrial and regulatory procedures that will accompany the procurement of plant and machine components by the ITER Members.

"The proper planning and timely delivery of these first plant components—in conformity with the schedule proposed in 2010—is an example to be followed," said Directorate head Sergio Orlandi (Plant System Engineering) who represented ITER Director-General Osamu Motojima at the short ceremony that followed the unpacking of the crates.

Click to read the press release in English or in French.


return to the latest published articles