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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Tokamak assembly | Extra support from below

    Underneath the concrete slab that supports the Tokamak Complex is a vast, dimly lit space whose only features are squat, pillar-like structures called 'plinths. [...]

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  • Vacuum standards and quality | Spreading the word

    As part of a continuing commitment to improve quality culture both at the ITER Organization and at the Domestic Agencies, the Vacuum Delivery & Installation [...]

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  • Test facility | How do electronics react to magnetic fields?

    A tokamak is basically a magnetic cage designed to confine, shape and control the super-hot plasmas that make fusion reactions possible. Inside the ITER Tokamak [...]

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  • ITER Robots | No two alike

    More than 500 students took part in the latest ITER Robots challenge. Working from the same instructions and technical specifications, they had worked in teams [...]

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  • Data archiving | Operating in quasi real time

    To accommodate the first real-time system integrated with the ITER control system, new components of the data archiving system have been deployed. Data archivi [...]

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Of Interest

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ITER NEWSLINE -

Manufacturing

Diamond windows in production in Europe

Synthetic diamond windows will play a double function in the ITER machine—allowing the microwaves of the electron cyclotron heating system to pass through to reach the plasma while providing an effective leak-proof vacuum barrier. A contractor to the European Domestic Agency has started production.

Only the best for ITER: high-purity CVD (chemical vapour deposition) diamond windows offer unsurpassed hardness, broad band optical transparency, and extremely high thermal conductivity. © Diamond Materials (Click to view larger version...)
Only the best for ITER: high-purity CVD (chemical vapour deposition) diamond windows offer unsurpassed hardness, broad band optical transparency, and extremely high thermal conductivity. © Diamond Materials
Offering unsurpassed hardness, broad band optical transparency, and extremely high thermal conductivity, synthetic diamonds are the material of choice for 60 small windows that offer access to the machine for the high-frequency electromagnetic waves of ITER's electron cyclotron heating system, yet ensure a tight vacuum boundary.

The European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy is working with a German contrator, Diamond Materials, for the production of sixty 1.1 mm thick discs with a diameter of 7 cm. Each one requires approximately six months to complete, including tests. The company is currently working at a rate of 7 to 10 discs every four months.

First the sythetic diamonds are "baked" in one of the company's 40 furnaces, a process that requires two months. Then the diamond is separated from its substrate, shaped to ITER specifications, and polished before its quality gets confirmed through optical testing.

See the full article on the Fusion for Energy website.

 

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