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Augmented reality | Assessing the future work environment
As part of their collaboration within the Site Support Agreement*, ITER and its neighbour CEA are developing a novel approach to explore, analyze and assess the [...]
Diagnostics and instrumentation | First welding on the vacuum vessel
Beginning in 2035, ITER will open a window into "burning plasmas"—a state of matter that exists in the core of stars only. Observing, assessing and mo [...]
Construction of an on-site machining workshop began in December 2019 and was completed on schedule in September 2020.The new workshop will be operated by the D [...]
Neutral Beam Test Facility | Power is ready for the prototype injector
The European Domestic Agency has carried out successful site acceptance tests at the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility on power supply equipment installed ov [...]
ITER has received the first shipments of mineral-insulated conductor for ITER's in-vessel coils. The first lengths are destined for winding and bending trials a [...]
Just like a thermos provides the insulation to keep your coffee warm—or your water cold—the ITER cryostat raises a barrier around the superconducting magnets that limits the possibility of heat exchange with the outside environment.
In the Cryostat Workshop on site, two sections of the cryostat are now in assembly in tandem. Here, the team stands inside the ring of the lower cylinder, tier one (30 metres in diameter). An initial pass of the welding tools has all segments now joined; the second tier segments—en route now from India—will top the first, creating a 10-metre-high structure.
Where coffee is concerned, the temperature gradient is small—even on a cold day, the beverage inside the thermos is only a few dozen degrees hotter (or colder) than the air outside. In ITER, the gradient is huge: with superconducting magnets cooled to a few degrees above absolute zero, the difference with the outside environment is in the range of 270 degrees Celsius.
Vacuum (an almost perfect insulator) is used in both a thermos and the ITER cryostat to provide insulation. In the first case, vacuum is sandwiched between the two "walls" of the container; in the second, the vessel itself—a ten-storey structure with a volume of 8,500 m³—is the vacuum chamber.
Part of the procurement responsibilities of India, the cryostat is being manufactured in 54 segments by Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro and shipped to the ITER Cryostat Workshop for assembly.
Over the past year and a half, we have seen the cryostat base take shape; now, work is underway simultaneously on the next section—the lower cylinder. Side by side, these components-in-progress give a true sense of the awesome size of the cryostat.
