Image of the week
Not huge but essential
6 Mar 2023
With some of the machine components that arrive at ITER as tall as a five-storey building or weighing as much as a jet liner, it's easy to overlook the smaller deliveries. But they too are key to the ITER program, because without the connectors, the distribution lines, and the millions of other pieces of small but essential hardware, the ITER machine would never start up.
Last week, it was the turn of the ITER and European Domestic Agency vacuum teams to celebrate the delivery of cryo-jumpers—semi-flexible cryogenic pipes that distribute cryogens (gaseous and super critical helium) at 80K and 4.5K from the cold valve boxes to the torus and cryostat cryopumps.
It represented the successful conclusion of a five-year contract between the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, and the German company Cryotherm GmbH & Co. KG. The delivery consisted of 32 sets of jumpers plus spares, which is all that is required for the ITER torus and cryostat cryopumps. The jumpers are a custom design and allow the pumps to be disconnected for maintenance activities. They also allow the cryogens to be distributed with minimal heat loss and pressure drop.
For more on the ITER cryopumps, visit this page of the ITER website.