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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Fusion world | 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, and that had been converted [...]

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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

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.

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