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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • 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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  • Repairs | Setting the stage for a critical task

    Like in a game of musical chairs—albeit in slow motion and at a massive scale—components in the Assembly Hall are being transferred from one location to another [...]

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  • Image of the week | There is life on Planet ITER

    Dated April 2023, this new image of the ITER "planet" places the construction site squarely in the middle. One kilometre long, 400 metres wide, the IT [...]

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  • Deputy Director-General | Luo Delong, Corporate

    Many years later, when the Ministry of Science and Technology assigned him to the ITER Project, Luo Delong was to remember the day when, as a young boy, he read [...]

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  • Visit | Japanese MEXT Minister tours the installation

    In Japan, a MEXT Minister has a lot on his or her plate: the extensive Ministry is a huge administrative machine whose purview includes education, culture, [...]

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Of Interest

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ITER NEWSLINE -

ITER assembly

First large tool rises

ITER's first 22-metre-tall vacuum vessel sector sub-assembly tool is going up quickly in the Assembly Hall.

(Click to view larger version...)
After a long period during which the anchoring elements—including base plates and rails—were set into place and precise measurements taken, the installation of ITER's first giant assembly tool is underway.

The inboard column already stands at 18 metres, with only 4 metres to go to reach its full height. To either side of the column, lateral wings are under construction and two other tall columns—the outboard columns—will be erected in the days and weeks to come. A testing phase will follow.

The tool, once fully erected, will be capable of supporting loads of 1,200 tonnes. Vacuum vessel sectors shipped from Europe and Korea will first be upended from their horizontal shipping position, and then suspended vertically by one of two sector sub-assembly tools while a pair of toroidal field coils plus thermal shielding is attached. The final assembly will be transported by overhead crane to the Tokamak assembly arena.

(Click to view larger version...)

In all, about half of the major components for the first tool have been installed. In parallel, the elements for the second tool have been manufactured and assembled at Taekyung Heavy Industries (THI) in Korea, where testing is underway.

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