Video
Watch the Big Lift!
23 May 2022
A component towering six storeys high and weighing the equivalent of four fully loaded Boeing 747s is lifted out of tooling and transferred into the assembly pit. Believe us, you'll want to see the video below.
The most spectacular lift at ITER yet, and one that must be repeated eight more times...
The 1,380-tonne "piece" of the ITER machine that was installed on Wednesday 11 May represents one-ninth of the toroidal plasma chamber. In ITER language it is a "sub-assembly," formed from one 40° vacuum vessel sector fitted with silver-coated thermal shields, and two D-shaped vertical superconducting electromagnets called toroidal field coils.
The video below brings you close enough to the action to grasp the precision demanded of the models and measurements, the unity of the different teams, the skill of the crane operators, and certainly the months of careful planning and rehearsal that make the spectacular operation look ... easy.
Watch it on the ITER YouTube channel here.