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

  • Deputy Director-General | Yutaka Kamada, Science & Technology

    In his late childhood and early teens, Yutaka Kamada developed two passions: one for growing cactus, the other for fusion energy. Half a century later, his [...]

    Read more

  • Images of the week | Yet another magnet feeder from China

    This in-cryostat feeder will supply electrical power and cryogenic fluids to some of the top correction coils of the ITER machine. ITER will rely on 31 mag [...]

    Read more

  • Gyrotrons | India successfully demonstrates ITER power and pulse requirements

    As a part of its in-kind commitments to the project, ITER India will deliver two radio-frequency-based power sources (or 'gyrotrons") with state-of-the-art [...]

    Read more

  • Neutral beam power supply | Lightning-power voltage

    In January 2021, preparatory works began for the construction of two large buildings designed to accommodate a unique set of electrical equipment. A little more [...]

    Read more

  • MITICA | Cryopump passes site acceptance tests

    Cryopumps, which play an essential role in ITER, are not what one has in mind when picturing a pump. A conventional pump creates negative pressure to suck in fl [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

Transport

300 tonnes of equipment on its way to ITER

A specially designed assembly tool and elements of the cryostat and vacuum vessel thermal shields are part of the shipments travelling now from Korea to ITER.

Part of the thermal shield for vacuum vessel sector #6 (outboard segments) took to the sea this weekend (14 September) in respect of an ITER Council milestone. (Click to view larger version...)
Part of the thermal shield for vacuum vessel sector #6 (outboard segments) took to the sea this weekend (14 September) in respect of an ITER Council milestone.
When machine assembly begins officially next year, overhead cranes with a lift capacity of 1,500 tonnes will begin to ferry completed components into the Tokamak Building for installation at the very bottom of the Tokamak Pit. The first of these, and the most spectacular in terms of sheer weight, will be the cryostat base.

In parallel, specialized tooling designed by Korea will enter into service next door in the Assembly Hall to manoeuvre, lift and in some cases pre-assemble components before their transfer to the Tokamak Building. Testing is underway now, for example, on the major sector sub-assembly tools (SSATs) that will allow contractors to join two D-shaped toroidal field and thermal shield panels to each 440-tonne vacuum vessel sector.

Part of the ''upending'' tool, designed to raise some of ITER's largest and heaviest components (the vacuum vessel sectors and D-shaped toroidal field coils) to a vertical position for sub-assembly operations. (Click to view larger version...)
Part of the ''upending'' tool, designed to raise some of ITER's largest and heaviest components (the vacuum vessel sectors and D-shaped toroidal field coils) to a vertical position for sub-assembly operations.
Shipments on their way from Korea now are important to that pre-assembly operation. In one boat that left the port of Ulsan on 29 August is the tool that will "upend" the vacuum vessel sectors and toroidal field coils from horizontal to vertical so that they can be installed on the SSAT tools. The upending tool is being shipped in two sections for a total of 220 tonnes.

Also travelling are elements of the ITER thermal shield—steel panels coated with low-emissivity silver to protect cold components such as the superconducting magnets from thermal radiation. Two large sections—the cylindrical-shaped lower cryostat thermal shield (planned for installation early in the machine assembly sequence inside of the cryostat base) and the vacuum vessel thermal shield (that will be mounted directly on vacuum vessel sector #6 as it is suspended on the SSAT tool next year)—were shipped on two vessels out of the port of Busan on 1 and 15 September. A handling frame for the thermal shield sectors was shipped alongside the upending tool one week earlier.

Elements of the cryostat thermal shield (top) and the vacuum vessel thermal shield (bottom) left the port of Busan on 1 September. (Click to view larger version...)
Elements of the cryostat thermal shield (top) and the vacuum vessel thermal shield (bottom) left the port of Busan on 1 September.
All of these major components are expected at ITER in October. The arrival of the thermal shield for sector #6 of the vacuum vessel completes an ITER Council milestone.



return to the latest published articles