The transfer of sector module #7 to the tokamak assembly pit, on Thursday 10 April, was many things in one. Hailed as a “record performance” by ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi, considered a “top-level achievement” by the head of the Construction Project Sergio Orlandi, the operation concentrated most of the challenges ITER must face and overcome during the machine assembly phase. The module itself, one of the nine “building blocks” that will, once assembled and welded, form the tokamak’s doughnut-shaped vacuum vessel, is a unique technological object. As tall as a five-storey building and as heavy as four fully loaded jumbo jets, it is a complex assembly of first-of-a-kind components procured by three different ITER Members: Korea for the vacuum vessel sector at the module’s core as well as the thermal panels that contribute to its insulation, and Europe and Japan for the pair of toroidal field coils that complete the assembly.Creating a module from these three major components—not to mention all the necessary piping, joining elements and accessories—is a lengthy operation. In 2021 and 2022, the assembly of sector module #6 had required 18 months of work. (Installed in the tokamak pit in May 2022, the module was extracted 14 months later for repair.) The many lessons learned throughout this initial operation were not lost on the teams who were able to divide by three the assembly time of sector module #7 and reduce it to a mere six months and ten days. This accomplishment was celebrated on Friday 28 March, with the teams pledging to do “even better for the next one.”The experience gained from the initial lifting, transfer and installation of a sector module also proved precious last week. “The cornerstone of the entire operation is the engineering definition of the task, properly documented and well understood by the executants,” explains Daniel Coelho, the ITER assembly engineer who coordinated the operation three years ago and again last week. “Whereas most of the people involved are tasked to apply rules and procedures, we still need a handful of people with a deep understanding of the reasoning behind the rules, in order to properly evaluate deviations to the process that arise and adapt with confidence in case of need.” To reinforce this approach, “veterans” from the sector module #6 operations in May 2022 and July 2023, still present on the ITER site but working in other parts of the project, were temporarily re-allocated to last week’s operation.  As the module nears the opening of the tokamak pit, the clearance between the floor and the bottom of the load does not exceed 25 centimetres. As for an airliner, the “take-off” and landing of a sector module are the most delicate phases of the journey. Wednesday, on the eve of the transfer, the teams rehearsed the very first sequence of the operation. Called a “pre-lift,” it consisted of lifting the 1,350-tonne load approximately 50 centimetres—a prelude to its full extraction from the sector sub-assembly tool (SSAT). The pre-lift allows for the thorough testing of every instrument to be involved in the full transfer, the practice of the initial sequences, and the coordination of the personnel involved.On Thursday morning, three weeks ahead of schedule, the transfer could commence. For those who had been present during the May 2022 operation, everything seemed to go exceptionally quickly and smoothly. And it was not just an impression: although the load travelled at times at the “micro speed” of a few centimetres per second, it seemed to reach the edge of the tokamak pit in record time. “The overhead cranes have proven to be much more reliable, with nearly no delay when compared to the two hours of immobilization we had experienced due to technical issues in 2022,” says Coelho.By early afternoon, the module had started its descent into the 30-metre-deep tokamak pit. Invisible to the eye, but quite apparent in time-lapse videos, the swinging of the load due to the inevitable “pendulum effect” made the last phase of the insertion particularly delicate (see the pendulum effect in the time-lapse video in this issue). At certain critical points, the clearance between the module and elements inside the tokamak pit did not exceed a few centimetres. “Not a walk in the park…” muses Coelho. Eight more to go… the insertion of sector module #6 is scheduled for July. At 10:00 p.m., with the module having reached the bottom of the pit and passed the last major technical hurdle, the teams were confident they could complete the job within hours. A special authorization from ITER management allowed their shift to be extended and by 1:30 a.m., the day’s objective was met—the module had safely landed in its temporary position. With sector module #6 now being reassembled and scheduled to be returned to the tokamak pit in July, “the present operation brings us back on track for the machine assembly phase” says ITER Machine Assembly Program Manager Jens Reich.See further information in the photo gallery below. 

To achieve what Director-General Pietro Barabaschi called the “record performance” of transferring sector module #7 to the tokamak assembly pit, the “human factor” was key.   The operation required “exceptional competence and dedication from all across the project,” he wrote in an email to staff, as well as the smooth and efficient collaboration between all the entities—and there were many!—involved in the operation.Approximately 150 people were involved, and they could not all fit in the narrow space next to the installed sector module, or in the clean corridor leading to the port cell where a technical desk was temporarily created to monitor the parameters of the operation. But those photographed represented their colleagues—the riggers, lifting crew and engineers from Chinese contractor CNPE; ITER supervisors and assembly experts; construction management-as-agent technicians and engineers; crane technical support from REEL; and crane pilots from Foselev. A unique conjunction of specialized talent that made the operation a success. In the clean corridor leading to the port cell, part of the team gathered around ITER lift coordinator Daniel Coelho (left) and ITER Assembly Expert Jarl Buskop (centre). Smooth and efficient collaboration between all the entities involved was key to the operation's success.

The World EXPO opened its gates yesterday in Osaka, Japan, for the second time in its history and the ITER project was present.  Whereas the 1970 Osaka Expo—Asia's first ever—showcased Japan's rapid economic growth, the 2025 edition aims to unite the international community around the forward-looking theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives." Organizers have built the six-month event around the idea of creating a forum where people and innovations from around the world come together in an effort to address "issues facing humankind on a global scale.""A World Expo is a place where new technologies and products are born," according to organizers, who cite elevators (1853, New York), the telephone (1876, Philadelphia), moving sidewalks (1970, Osaka) and automated defibrillators (2005, Aichi) as examples. Trained hostesses will help members of the general public navigate the ITER stand and interact with the displays over the six months of the exhibition. The ITER project has set up in the International Organizations Pavilion, where it has a prominent stand presenting the promise of fusion energy and the effort underway globally to master this promising and transformative energy source.Half-way through the six-month exhibition, on 13 July, ITER will host a special FUSION DAY in the National Day Hall with presentations, animations and video screenings. ITER joins 160 countries and regions at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka, Japan, to showcase fusion energy. If you are interested to visit the ITER exhibit or if you would like to attend the Special Fusion Day, please write to @email.EXPO 2025 Osaka runs through 13 October 2025.

Over the course of one very long day last week, sector module #7 was removed from vertical tooling and transferred into the tokamak pit where it now sits on temporary supports. The spectacular operation will be the subject of a detailed video, with interviews, later this week. For the time being, you can watch the operation in accelerated form in this 90-second time-lapse video.See the video on YouTube here.