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Fusion world | Innovative approaches and how ITER can help
More than 30 private fusion companies from around the world attended ITER's inaugural Private Sector Fusion Workshop in May 2024. Four of them participated in a [...]
Robert Aymar (1936-2024) | A vision turned into reality
Robert Aymar, who played a key role in the development of fusion research in France and worldwide, and who headed the ITER project for 10 years (1993-2003) befo [...]
Gathered on the ITER platform for a group photo (the first one since 2019, in pre-Covid times) the crowd looks impressive. Although several hundred strong, it r [...]
Vacuum vessel | Europe completes first of five sectors
The ITER assembly teams are gearing up to receive a 440-tonne machine component shipped from Italy—sector #5, the first of five vacuum vessel sectors expected f [...]
SOFT 2024 | Dublin conference highlights progress and outstanding challenges
Nestled in the residential suburb of Glasnevin, Dublin City University is a fairly young academic institution. When it opened its doors in 1980 it had just 200 [...]
A Titan's hug is a slow affair. For the sector sub-assembly tools, rotating both arms from "full open" to "full close" will require no less than four hours of near-imperceptible motion.
Resting on the ground to the left in this image, are the two 350-tonne mock loads that represent toroidal field coils. Tool load tests will begin in mid-July and last for about a month.
In the Assembly Hall everything is being readied for the tool load tests, which are scheduled to begin in mid-July and last for about one month.
Two 350-tonne test loads, each representing an ITER toroidal field coil, have been assembled on the floor at the entrance. Made of seven different steel-and-concrete modules, the dummies slightly exceed the weight of the actual coils but closely reproduce their centre of gravity and distribution of mass.
During the tests, the mock toroidal field loads will be mounted on the arms of the giant tools and delicately rotated inward to the point where—if they were the real components—they would be close enough to be assembled to the vacuum vessel sector positioned in the centre of the tool, as well as to thermal shield panels.
During the machine assembly phase, this "slow embrace" will be performed nine times—one for each sector of the doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel.
"The weight of the components and the very high accuracy required create very severe conditions," says Ryutaro Okugawa, the leader of the ITER Tooling & Engineering Group, which is overseeing the load test preparation.
Made of seven different steel-and-concrete modules, the dummies slightly exceed the weight of the actual coil but closely reproduce their centre of gravity and distribution of mass.
First, the stiffness and rigidity of the seven-module loads needs to be confirmed. This will be achieved by lifting the dummies a few centimetres above the shop floor and measuring the stress on the tension bars—the so-called "Macalloys"—that keep the module together.
Then comes the hard part: each load will be lifted and upended using a 800-tonne mobile crane (during the actual assembly activities, a bespoke "upending tool" will be used) working in close coordination with the overhead cranes of the Assembly Hall.
The mock loads will then be positioned with utmost precision on their dedicated supports within each tool in turn and attached to their respective upper and lower adjustment units.
For the 22-metre-high Titan undergoing testing, it will be time to slowly close its heavily loaded arms and practice—for the first time—the actual embrace of a 440-tonne vacuum vessel sector.
