May 2020 - March 2021
Time-lapsing through machine assembly
22 Mar 2021
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.
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.