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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Vacuum vessel repair | A portfolio

    Whether standing vertically in the Assembly Hall or lying horizontally in the former Cryostat Workshop now assigned to component repair operations, the non-conf [...]

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  • European Physical Society | ITER presents its new plans

    The new ITER baseline and its associated research plan were presented last week at the 50th annual conference of the European Physical Society Plasma Physics Di [...]

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  • Image of the week | The platform's quasi-final appearance

    Since preparation work began in 2007 on the stretch of land that was to host the 42-hectare ITER platform, regular photographic surveys have been organized to d [...]

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  • Cryopumps | Preparing for the cold tests

    Before being delivered to ITER, the torus and cryostat cryopumps are submitted to a  comprehensive series of factory acceptance tests. This is not sufficie [...]

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  • Fusion technologies | Closing a fusion schism

    Historically, inertial confinement and magnetic confinement approaches to fusion have been parallel, separate processes. The ITER Private Sector Fusion Workshop [...]

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Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Video

How does the ITER cryoplant work?

Cold is essential to ITER—10,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, the thermal shield that surrounds the machine, the cryopumps that achieve the high vacuum inside the vacuum vessel ... all need to be brought down to extremely low temperatures (between minus 193 °C and minus 269 °C).

The ITER cryogenic system will be the largest concentrated cryogenic system in the world. (Click to view larger version...)
The ITER cryogenic system will be the largest concentrated cryogenic system in the world.
In order to deliver the cooling fluids to the machine, a large cooling plant has been built at ITER that ranks as the most powerful single-platform cryoplant in the world.

Designed and manufactured by Air Liquide, the ITER cryoplant includes three helium refrigeration units, two nitrogen refrigeration units and 1.6 kilometres of cryogenic lines connecting the plant to the Tokamak Building. Installation activities are underway now.

The complex workings of the ITER cryoplant are explained in this video, produced by Air Liquide.

For more on Air Liquide's contribution to ITER cryogenics, visit this page.

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