More than 2,000 supports per sector

2026-02-21 - Vacuum vessel sector #9 is loaded on 21 February in Monfalcone, Italy. The 400-tonne sector—the third of five expected from Europe—will arrive at ITER in March.

2026-02-19 - A technician watches closely as a 16-tonne plant component crosses overhead on its way to the Tokamak Building.

2026-02-19 - A smaller crane (capacity 50 tonnes) is used to move a plant component into the Tokamak Building through a temporary opening. This "cold valve box" will regulate the cryogenic fluids destined for different parts of the ITER thermal shield.

2026-02-16 - Nine gravity supports like this one, supplied by Korea, will support the vacuum vessel sectors from below. Their dual-hinged design allows for a slight expansion of the vacuum vessel in the radial direction.

2026-02-12 - These members of the CNPE team are photographed during the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #1 into tooling. The CNPE consortium (China Nuclear Power Engineering; China Nuclear Industry 23 Construction Company; Southwestern Institute of Physics; ASIPP; and Framatome) is responsible for sector module sub-assembly and tokamak machine assembly.

2026-02-12 - Vacuum vessel sector #1 has landed in sub-assembly tool #2 (SSAT2). Its weight is supported by a radial beam (above) and a pillar under its lower port stub extension (below).

2026-02-12 - Vacuum vessel sector #1 is lowered into tooling by ITER's "pair of safe hands"—the 1,500-tonne bridge cranes.

2026-02-12 - The 400-tonne "bare" sector is transported over the transversal beam of the tall tool. Once it has been docked, work will begin to make it a "sector module."

2026-02-12 - Final adjustments are underway for the imminent transfer of vacuum vessel sector #1 to assembly tooling.

2026-02-11 - The next sector planned for arrival at ITER, sector #9, has been wrapped for transport in the Westinghouse Mangiarotti factory in Italy. It will be inserted into protective housing before it is transported to the Monfalcone quay for loading.

2026-02-11 - A (smaller) vacuum vessel gravity support is installed between two toroidal field coil supports with the help of a tool (in black) that helps to correct its angle of insertion. Both types of supports will shoulder heavy loads and also show some elasticity for different types of machine movement during operation.

2026-02-11 - This vacuum vessel gravity support is one of nine that will be installed under the lower port stub extensions of each sector module in the pit.

2026-02-09 - Vacuum vessel sector #1 has been "upended" to vertical in the Assembly Hall. Later this week, the cranes will lift it out of the specialized frame and transfer it across the way where it will be assembled with other major components to become a "sector module."

2026-02-09 - This mug seen around ITER offices features the Grad–Shafranov equation—the foundation for modelling the magnetic control of tokamak plasma. It was handwritten by ITER Emeritus Fellow Yuri Gribov, who retired late last year after working more than 18 years in the ITER Science Division. There is a personal link: as a young man in Russia, Gribov worked under Vitaly Shafranov. Read the full story here: https://www.iter.org/node/20687/story-behind-coffee-mug