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

  • Busbar installation | Navigating an obstacle course

    What is simple and commonplace in the ordinary world, like connecting an electrical device to a power source, often takes on extraordinary dimension at ITER. Wh [...]

    Read more

  • Vacuum vessel assembly | Back in the starting blocks

    Close to two years have passed since vacuum vessel assembly was halted when defects were identified in the ITER tokamak's vacuum vessel sectors and thermal shie [...]

    Read more

  • Ride 4 Fusion | Scientific outreach on two wheels

    A group of fusion researchers has left Padua, Italy, for an 800-kilometre bike trip to the ITER site. Their goal? To share information about fusion energy resea [...]

    Read more

  • 11th ITER Games | Good fun under the Provencal sun

    A yearly tradition in the ITER community for more than a decade now, the ITER Games offer a pleasant way to reconnect among colleagues and neighbours after the [...]

    Read more

  • Manufacturing | Recent milestones in Russia

    Russia continues to deliver in-kind components to the ITER project according to procurement arrangements signed with the ITER Organization. Some recent manufact [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Design completed for cryostat auxiliary components

It took a team to bring the design for cryostat auxiliary components to completion. Pictured: members from the ITER Organization central team and the Indian Domestic Agency. (Click to view larger version...)
It took a team to bring the design for cryostat auxiliary components to completion. Pictured: members from the ITER Organization central team and the Indian Domestic Agency.
Under the terms of a Procurement Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in 2011, the Indian Domestic Agency is supplying the 54 main stainless steel segments of the ITER cryostat, the giant "thermos" that will completely surround the tokamak, provide structural support, and ensure the thermal insulation of the superconducting magnets. The first segments arrived on site in December.

The scope of the procurement also covers two sub-systems—the torus cryopump housing and rectangular bellows. The design and technical specifications for both sub-systems have now advanced to the point where the dedicated technical annex of the Cryostat Procurement Arrangement—Annex B—is approved for the torus cryopump housing and being agreed for the rectangular bellows between the ITER Organization and Indian Domestic Agency.

These accomplishments, which open the way to procurement activities, would not have been possible without close collaboration, transparent communication and a strong common technical understanding between the ITER Organization, the Indian Domestic Agency and industry.

The torus cryopump housing has a number of functions. It supports the torus cryopumps, connects the cryopumps to the torus vacuum, and provides the volume to dilute hydrogen during the cryopump regeneration, maintaining confinement.

The rectangular bellows will be distributed among all port extensions on the three levels of the cryostat rectangular openings. Weighing between 1.8 tonnes and 5.9 tonnes each, their role is to seal the cryostat and to ensure the confinement of the vacuum between the cryostat and the port cells and also to compensate for relative displacements between the vacuum vessel, the cryostat, and the building. The development of the rectangular bellows was led by the ITER Organization in conjunction with a specialized bellows manufacturer. Extensive analysis work was performed in order to justify the structural integrity and qualification tests were conducted on several full-size prototypes in order to experimentally verify the compliance with the expansion joint project requirements.

return to the latest published articles