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

  • 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

  • Construction progress | Bird's eye views, three years apart

    Taken three years apart (February 2020-February 2023) these two aerial photographs provide a spectacular illustration of progress on the ITER construction site. [...]

    Read more

  • Tritium breeding | Korea and Europe enter partnership

    The future of fusion rests on the availably of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium (one proton, one neutron) and tritium (one proton, two neutrons). Extracting deu [...]

    Read more

  • Diagnostic windows | Preserving the view and the vacuum

    Punctuating the inner surface of the vacuum vessel are many strategically placed windows that will be used by diagnostic systems to 'observe' the plasma. " [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

May 2020 - March 2021

Time-lapsing through machine assembly

On 26-27 May 2020, as the 1,250-tonne cryostat base was installed at the bottom of the assembly pit, a new and decisive chapter opened in the history of ITER.

On 31 August 2020, the cryostat lower cylinder was the second major component installed in the assembly pit. Three months earlier, the lifting of the 1,250-tonne cryostat base had inaugurated the machine assembly phase. (Click to view larger version...)
On 31 August 2020, the cryostat lower cylinder was the second major component installed in the assembly pit. Three months earlier, the lifting of the 1,250-tonne cryostat base had inaugurated the machine assembly phase.
This time-lapse video, shot from a camera positioned almost directly above the assembly pit, will take you from early May 2020, when the pit was still an empty space ringed by the cryostat support bearings, to mid-March 2021 as ITER prepares for the insertion of the first poloidal field coils in the coming weeks.

This ten-month span condensed into 1 minute and 28 seconds illustrates the variety of actions required as well as the tools and the techniques involved (note the flashes of light from the welding operations at the centre of the pit from February into March 2021) in the positioning of the cryostat lower cylinder, the lower cryostat thermal shield, the temporary supports for poloidal field coil #6 and the gravity supports for the toroidal field coils.

Click here to watch the video.

return to the latest published articles