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  • Collaboration | Japan and Europe inaugurate largest tokamak in the world

    It was 6:00 a.m. in La Bergerie, a former sheep barn located a few kilometres from ITER in the vast Château de Cadarache domain that had been converted in 2 [...]

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  • Stakeholders | ITER Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida

    In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and [...]

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  • Image of the week | Season wrapping

    Although the travel distance is short, barely exceeding one hundred metres, the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #8 from the Assembly Hall, where it is presentl [...]

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  • In memoriam | Bernard Pégourié, physicist and mountaineer

    The worldwide fusion community mourns Bernard Pégourié, of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (CEA-IRFM), who passed away on 25 November following [...]

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  • COP28 | Fusion is making a splash

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, opened on 30 November in Dubai's Expo City—a sprawling conference centre built two years ago for the W [...]

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Of Interest

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ITER NEWSLINE -

Port cells

All 46 doors in place

In ITER, ordinary objects and features often take on an awesome dimension. Take the doors that seal off the port cells around the Tokamak for instance. Doors they are, with hinges that attach them to their frame. But, this being ITER, they are unique: four metres wide and nearly as many in height, they are as thick as a stone wall and as heavy as a small steam locomotive.

The French-German engineering consortium Cegelec/Sommer, subcontractor to the European consortium VFR that is in charge of the construction of the Tokamak Complex, manufactured the nuclear doors and developed a custom-made lifting device dubbed the ''moped.'' (Click to view larger version...)
The French-German engineering consortium Cegelec/Sommer, subcontractor to the European consortium VFR that is in charge of the construction of the Tokamak Complex, manufactured the nuclear doors and developed a custom-made lifting device dubbed the ''moped.''
A set of 46 port cell doors will act as confinement barriers, sealing off the port cells that spoke away from the machine and shielding the environment from the radiation generated by the burning plasma. Their thick steel structure (39 tonnes) is filled on site with 7.5 cubic metres (28 tonnes) of high-density, specially formulated concrete that opposes the passage of neutrons and potential contamination.

Installation of the port cell doors in the Tokamak Building began in July 2018 and was completed just a few weeks ago, on 19 June. For close to two years, a bespoke tool dubbed the "moped" (la pétrolette) by the teams handled and manoeuvred the massive structures through the galleries inside the building, shuttling them from the concrete-filling station to their installation location.

A strange yet familiar sight, the bright red moped on yellow wheels will not be seen anymore ...

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