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Industrial milestone | Cryostat manufacturing comes to an end in India

With a flag-off ceremony on 30 June, India's L&T Heavy Engineering marked the end of an eight-year industrial adventure—the manufacturing of the ITER cryostat.   In September 2012, the Indian Domestic Agency concluded a contract with Larsen & Toubro for the fabrication of the 3,800-tonne ITER cryostat—the world's largest steel vacuum chamber (16,000 m³) and a critical part of the ITER machine.   Eight years later, the final segments are ready for shipment to ITER. Twelve segments of the top lid plus one central disk—650 tonnes in all—will leave India to be assembled and welded on site in a dedicated workshop.   Completely surrounding the vacuum vessel and superconducting magnets, the 29 x 29 metre cryostat acts as a thermos, insulating the superconducting magnets at ultra-cold temperature from the outside environment and contributing to structural reinforcement by supporting the mass of the machine and transferring the mechanical loads of the ITER machine to the concrete structure of the tokamak pit.   'The ITER Project and ITER India were very fortunate to have Larsen & Toubro as our partner and the primary contractor for cryostat fabrication,' stressed ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot by video connection during the ceremony. 'As a company with more than 80 years of experience, we knew that Larsen & Toubro had built nuclear plants, shipping ports, airports, and specialized vessels such as giant ocean tankers and submarines.'   The size of the component meant that Larsen & Toubro had to plan for a three-stage, kit-like process, first manufacturing 54 segments in India and shipping them to ITER, then assembling the segments into four large manoeuvrable sections (base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder, top lid) in the on-site Cryostat Workshop, and finally integrating and welding the sections together in the Tokamak Pit. From the start, Larsen & Toubro has worked with MAN Energy Solutions of Germany as the subcontractor for welding operations at the ITER site.   Since work began on site in 2016, three of the four cryostat sections have been completed and handed over to the ITER Organization. The cryostat base was installed in the Tokamak pit on 26 May 2020, and the lower and upper cylinders are currently stored in protective wrapping outside of the workshop. The lower cylinder will be moved into the Assembly Hall in August 2020 to prepare for the lowering operation.   'The making of the ITER cryostat is a shining illustration of what the ITER international collaboration is about: committed men and women working to the best of their ability in different parts of the world as a 'One-ITER' team, to meet an ambitious and unprecedented challenge,' concluded Director-General Bigot.   Read more about on-site cryostat fabrication here. Watch a recording of the event here. 

Port cells | All 46 doors in place

In ITER, ordinary objects and features often take on an awesome dimension. Take the doors that seal off the port cells around the Tokamak for instance. Doors they are, with hinges that attach them to their frame. But, this being ITER, they are unique: four metres wide and nearly as many in height, they are as thick as a stone wall and as heavy as a small steam locomotive. A set of 46 port cell doors will act as confinement barriers, sealing off the port cells that spoke away from the machine and shielding the environment from the radiation generated by the burning plasma. Their thick steel structure (39 tonnes) is filled on site with 7.5 cubic metres (28 tonnes) of high-density, specially formulated concrete that opposes the passage of neutrons and potential contamination. Installation of the port cell doors in the Tokamak Building began in July 2018 and was completed just a few weeks ago, on 19 June. For close to two years, a bespoke tool dubbed the 'moped' (la pétrolette) by the teams handled and manoeuvred the massive structures through the galleries inside the building, shuttling them from the concrete-filling station to their installation location. A strange yet familiar sight, the bright red moped on yellow wheels will not be seen anymore ...

Toroidal field coils | Two make a pair

One of the essential 'building blocks' of the ITER Tokamak is the pre-assembly of two toroidal field coils, one vacuum vessel sector and corresponding panels of thermal shielding. Combining these different components into one ~ 1,200-tonne single assembly will be the task of the twin sector sub-assembly tools (SSATs). The operation will be repeated nine times (for nine vacuum vessel sectors) and involve 18 toroidal field coils. One by one, the components for the first vacuum vessel pre-assembly are being delivered to ITER. Sets of thermal shielding from Korea began arriving in October last year; toroidal field coil #12, procured by Japan, reached the ITER site on 25 April; and its 'partner'—toroidal field coil #13, also from Japan—was received last Friday 3 July. As for the 440-tonne vacuum vessel sector that will be paired to the two Japanese coils—Sector #6—it left the port of Busan, Korea, on 28 June and is expected to reach Marseille industrial harbour before the end of July. In the Assembly Hall, the major tools are standing ready: the upending tool will be used to raise the heaviest elements of pre-assembly from horizontal to vertical; the overhead cranes will transport the vacuum vessel sectors and toroidal field coils in turn to the sector sub-assembly tools; and the sector sub-assembly tools will support all elements during assembly.

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