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  • Tokamak assembly | Extra support from below

    Underneath the concrete slab that supports the Tokamak Complex is a vast, dimly lit space whose only features are squat, pillar-like structures called 'plinths. [...]

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  • Vacuum standards and quality | Spreading the word

    As part of a continuing commitment to improve quality culture both at the ITER Organization and at the Domestic Agencies, the Vacuum Delivery & Installation [...]

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  • Test facility | How do electronics react to magnetic fields?

    A tokamak is basically a magnetic cage designed to confine, shape and control the super-hot plasmas that make fusion reactions possible. Inside the ITER Tokamak [...]

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  • ITER Robots | No two alike

    More than 500 students took part in the latest ITER Robots challenge. Working from the same instructions and technical specifications, they had worked in teams [...]

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  • Data archiving | Operating in quasi real time

    To accommodate the first real-time system integrated with the ITER control system, new components of the data archiving system have been deployed. Data archivi [...]

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Of Interest

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ITER NEWSLINE -

Laying tracks for the elevated railway

They're as thick and strong as railroad tracks and could easily carry the equivalent of four TGVs, two Eurostars or 15 steam locomotives. The steel rails that are being installed 43 metres above the basemat of the Assembly Hall are an essential part of the lifting system that will handle components weighing up to 1,500 tonnes.

43 metres above the basemat of the Assembly Hall, workers are laying the rails for the lifting system that will handle components weighing up to 1,500 tonnes. (Click to view larger version...)
43 metres above the basemat of the Assembly Hall, workers are laying the rails for the lifting system that will handle components weighing up to 1,500 tonnes.
When rails are laid on the ground, they rest on a bed of crushed stone (the track ballast) that distributes the load of the passing trains. In the ITER Assembly Hall, the ballast role is played by massive steel elements (9.3 metres long, 20 tonnes) called railway beams.

Resting on the vertical pillars of the Assembly Hall and running the entire length of the building, the railway beams form a perfectly smooth steel track upon which the rails can be affixed.

It will take a few weeks to install the rails and fine tune their alignment. (Click to view larger version...)
It will take a few weeks to install the rails and fine tune their alignment.
On Thursday 12 May, on the north side of the Assembly Hall, the first 18-metre length of rail was lifted, carefully deposited and fastened with heavy clips to the ledge formed by the railway beams. It will take a few weeks to install the rails and fine tune their alignment in time for the installation, beginning next month, of the girders and trolleys of the travelling crane.

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