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

  • Poloidal field magnets | The last ring

    As the massive ring-shaped coil inched its way from the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility, where it was manufactured, to the storage facility nearby where i [...]

    Read more

  • Heat rejection | White "smoke" brings good news

    Like a plume of white smoke rising from a cardinals' conclave to announce the election of a new pope, the tenuous vapour coming from one of the ITER cooling cel [...]

    Read more

  • WEC 2024 | Energy on centre stage

    The global players in the energy sector convened in Rotterdam last week for the 26th edition of the World Energy Congress (WEC). The venue was well chosen, wit [...]

    Read more

  • Fusion world | The EU blueprint for fusion energy

    The EU Blueprint for Fusion Energy workshop, convened by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy, brought together key stakeholders in the fiel [...]

    Read more

  • Neutral beam injection | ELISE achieves target values for ITER

    Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching, Germany, have generated the ion current densities required for ITER neutral beam injecti [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Sub-assembly tools

A 12-tonne beam, a crane and a little push

There is nothing remarkable about lifting a 12-tonne beam. Except when it happens in the spectacular setting of the ITER Assembly Hall, and the beam needs to be fitted with extreme precision into a structure as monumental as the ITER sector sub-assembly tools.

The first 12-tonne beam is slowly lifted 22 metres above ground. (Click to view larger version...)
The first 12-tonne beam is slowly lifted 22 metres above ground.
Towering 22 metres above ground, the vacuum vessel sector sub-assembly tools (SSATs) are formidable handling machines that will be used to pre-assemble vacuum vessel sectors with a pair of toroidal field coils and thermal shield segments before integration in the machine.

The assembly of SSAT-1 began in November 2017 and is now complete. Work on its identical twin SSAT-2 started in September the following year and is now entering its final phase.

Positioned on both sides of the beam, CNIM specialists precisely align the suspended beam and the massive supporting pillars—an operation that can only be performed manually. (Click to view larger version...)
Positioned on both sides of the beam, CNIM specialists precisely align the suspended beam and the massive supporting pillars—an operation that can only be performed manually.
Part of Korea's contribution to ITER, the tools are assembled by French contractor CNIM. Lessons learned from SSAT-1 have reduced assembly time for SSAT-2 by approximately one-third.

On Wednesday 9 January, installation operations began for some of the last elements: two 12-tonne beams that stabilize the massive pillars of the machine.

Click here to watch a video of the installation.

return to the latest published articles