Two sectors now in assembly
A vacuum vessel sector standing in an assembly tool is a strikingly beautiful sight. Two sectors being assembled in parallel, each in a dedicated tool, is a comforting one—the unmistakable sign that the momentum is back.
Two years have passed since vacuum vessel assembly was halted following the identification of non-conformities in the ITER tokamak's vacuum vessel sectors and microscopic cracks in thermal shield cooling pipes. With two sectors and most of the thermal shield panels now fully repaired, the re-assembly of vacuum vessel sectors #7 and #6 into sector modules (paired with thermal shields and toroidal field coils) is underway.
Last week, in the tool occupied by sector #7, workers were busy installing lower adapters on the wings of the tool for the pair of toroidal field coils that will be rotated inward towards the sector. In the other giant standing tool, sector #6 has just been freed from the scaffolding that hid it from view during the repair phase.
The initial assembly of sector #6 in 2021-2022 (before it was installed in and then removed from the tokamak pit) had required 18 months of patient work. The aim now is to divide by a factor two and a half to eventually three the assembly time required for each of the nine modules required for completing the toroidal vacuum vessel of the ITER tokamak.
Following this schedule, sector module #7 should be ready for installation in February 2025, followed two months later by sector module #6.