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

  • Deputy Director-General | Yutaka Kamada, Science & Technology

    In his late childhood and early teens, Yutaka Kamada developed two passions: one for growing cactus, the other for fusion energy. Half a century later, his [...]

    Read more

  • Images of the week | Yet another magnet feeder from China

    This in-cryostat feeder will supply electrical power and cryogenic fluids to some of the top correction coils of the ITER machine. ITER will rely on 31 mag [...]

    Read more

  • Gyrotrons | India successfully demonstrates ITER power and pulse requirements

    As a part of its in-kind commitments to the project, ITER India will deliver two radio-frequency-based power sources (or 'gyrotrons") with state-of-the-art [...]

    Read more

  • 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

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Poloidal field coil #4

Into the cold chamber

Before they can be considered fit for service, the ring-shaped coils that circle the ITER vacuum vessel must be submitted to a series of tests designed to confirm their performance in the daunting environment of a burning plasma. The procedure begins with the delicate insertion of the coil inside a close-fitting, doughnut-shaped cryostat and extends more than one month.

Attached to the gantry crane, the coil is now vertically aligned with the open cryostat. The 36 sections of the upper cryostat, visible inside the circular structure, will eventually be assembled and welded before testing begins. (Click to view larger version...)
Attached to the gantry crane, the coil is now vertically aligned with the open cryostat. The 36 sections of the upper cryostat, visible inside the circular structure, will eventually be assembled and welded before testing begins.
Whether performed at room temperature or at 80 K (minus 194 degrees Celsius), the tests aim to verify the helium cooling circuit's leak-tightness, the performance of the electrical insulation and the coil's mechanical behaviour under cryogenic conditions. Although cold tests have been performed before (on PF6 in December 2020, on PF5 in March 2021 and on PF2 in October 2021), the operation that began on Monday 20 February 2023 in the European poloidal field coil facility on site was exceptionally spectacular: PF4, the coil that was inserted into the open cryostat, is 24 metres in diameter and weighs in excess of 350 tonnes.

Moving such a delicate and massive component requires an equally delicate and massive lifting tool. The gantry crane in Europe's poloidal field coil facility—a 30-metre-in-diameter steel structure supported by four hydraulic towers traveling on rails—meets these requirements. Equipped with hydraulic slings and load sensors, it is capable of moving a large circular coil while ensuring at all times a uniform distribution of the load. (Click here to view a short time-lapse video of the coil lifting and insertion.)

Inside the cryostat, the coil will experience extreme cold, intense pressure, high voltage and considerable thermal stresses—a foretaste of its life to come in the daunting environment of a burning plasma. (Click to view larger version...)
Inside the cryostat, the coil will experience extreme cold, intense pressure, high voltage and considerable thermal stresses—a foretaste of its life to come in the daunting environment of a burning plasma.
"As the gantry crane can only move along the rails in the longitudinal direction it is of the utmost importance that the cryostat be installed in the correct coordinates," explains Mónica Martínez, the European Domestic Agency's (F4E's) Technical Officer for poloidal field coils. Aligning the crane's laser pointer to a simple point marked on the building's floor does the trick: the coil can be gently lowered into the cryostat where it will spend more than one month, experiencing extreme cold, intense pressure, high voltage and considerable thermal stresses—a foretaste of its life to come.

See the report on the Fusion for Energy website.

return to the latest published articles