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

  • Busbar installation | Navigating an obstacle course

    What is simple and commonplace in the ordinary world, like connecting an electrical device to a power source, often takes on extraordinary dimension at ITER. Wh [...]

    Read more

  • Vacuum vessel assembly | Back in the starting blocks

    Close to two years have passed since vacuum vessel assembly was halted when defects were identified in the ITER tokamak's vacuum vessel sectors and thermal shie [...]

    Read more

  • Ride 4 Fusion | Scientific outreach on two wheels

    A group of fusion researchers has left Padua, Italy, for an 800-kilometre bike trip to the ITER site. Their goal? To share information about fusion energy resea [...]

    Read more

  • 11th ITER Games | Good fun under the Provencal sun

    A yearly tradition in the ITER community for more than a decade now, the ITER Games offer a pleasant way to reconnect among colleagues and neighbours after the [...]

    Read more

  • Manufacturing | Recent milestones in Russia

    Russia continues to deliver in-kind components to the ITER project according to procurement arrangements signed with the ITER Organization. Some recent manufact [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Image of the week

First cryopump expected in the coming months

The cryopumps that will create and maintain extremely demanding vacuum conditions inside the ITER machine are marvels of technology that have been in development for over 15 years in Europe. The first production unit is expected at ITER before the end of the year.

The serial production of torus and cryostat cryopumps is progressing at Research Instruments, Germany, on behalf of the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy. (Click to view larger version...)
The serial production of torus and cryostat cryopumps is progressing at Research Instruments, Germany, on behalf of the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy.
Vacuum pumping is required prior to starting the fusion reaction to eliminate all sources of organic molecules that would otherwise be broken up in the hot plasma. Vacuum pumping is also required to create low density—about one million times lower than the density of air.

Mechanical pumps alone cannot achieve the vacuum quality that is indispensable to producing the ITER plasmas. Once mechanical pumps have evacuated most of the air molecules and impurities from inside the vacuum vessel, six torus cryopumps will finalize the job and trap the remaining particles. Two other cryopumps in the cryostat will maintain the low pressure required for the operation of the superconducting magnets.

These complex pumps have been in design for years to meet the very specific applications and requirements at ITER. All are based on cryopanels, cooled with supercritical helium and coated with activated charcoal as sorbent material for imprisoning particles.

Under the terms of a Procurement Arrangement signed with the ITER Organization in 2018, the European Domestic Agency (Fusion for Energy) is procuring the eight cryopumps based on a design developed through the close collaboration of experts at ITER and Fusion for Energy and the participation of European industry. The first production pump is expected at ITER before the end of the year.

return to the latest published articles