Image of the week
Final activities on Europe's first sector
29 Nov 2021
The first vacuum vessel sector produced in Europe will arrive at ITER next year.
The first European sector of the ITER vacuum vessel is coming together at the Westinghouse/Mangiarotti facility in Monfalcone, Italy. It is expected next year on site at ITER.
Five of ITER's nine vacuum vessel sectors are the responsibility of Europe's AMW consortium (Ansaldo Nucleare, Westinghouse/Mangiarotti, Walter Tosto, and subcontractors). More than 200 people from seven companies have worked on this European procurement package.
Each sector is assembled from four poloidal segments. The four segments for Sector #5—manufactured by different members of the consortium—have now come together on a specialized assembly platform for the final activity phase. In this photo, the 440-tonne sector is seen moving away from the radiographic bunker where tests were carried out; it will now return to the Mangiarotti workshop for the last sequence of activities including outer shell welding.
This month, progress on Sector #5 passed the 95.5 percent mark.