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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • 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

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Image of the week

The lighthouse in the pit

Like a lighthouse (without a beacon) the central column rises more than 20 metres above the floor of the assembly pit. The massive structure does not belong to the tokamak, however: once connected to an array of nine radial beams it will form the backbone of a 600-tonne temporary tool that will support, align, and stabilize the vacuum vessel sub-assemblies as they are joined and welded. The tool is designed to support a total nominal weight of 5,400 tonnes.

The central column rises more than 20 metres above the floor of the assembly pit. It is one of the most massive tools used in the assembly process. (Click to view larger version...)
The central column rises more than 20 metres above the floor of the assembly pit. It is one of the most massive tools used in the assembly process.
On 27 March 2021, the first and sturdiest segment of the central column (the 70-tonne bottom cylinder) was lowered into the assembly pit and carefully inserted into the circular opening at the bottom of the cryostat base. Metrology confirmed that the structure was placed within 2 millimetres of its nominal position inside of the Tokamak Global Coordinate System (TGCS).

Five months later, on 20 August, the remaining four sections were successively installed and assembled, bringing the column to its full height.

Each of the nine radial beams will be supported by the central column on one side and the concrete bioshield on the other through brackets embedded in the L2 level of the bioshield wall. On 30 August, the first of these brackets, called a radial beam support, was successfully installed in port cell #12.

The port cells are numbered at the top of the assembly pit (photo). Once all nine vacuum vessel sub-assemblies are in place, the central column will be removed. In its place, operators will install the central solenoid. (Click to view larger version...)
The port cells are numbered at the top of the assembly pit (photo). Once all nine vacuum vessel sub-assemblies are in place, the central column will be removed. In its place, operators will install the central solenoid.
Everything is in place for a first "insertion" test. Later this week, the overhead cranes will lift a test radial beam (without its load) and insert it into the Tokamak pit in order to confirm the alignment between the central column and the radial beam support. This is one of the 27 steps leading to the installation of the first 1,200-tonne vacuum vessel sub-assembly, planned for late October.

 

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