Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Image of the Week | Hard work deserves an outdoor buffet

    A start-of-summer event was held on Friday 21 June for the ITER community—an occasion to celebrate the everyday commitment of staff and contractors alike, acros [...]

    Read more

  • Poloidal field coils | Reflecting on a unique industrial achievement

    They had worked together for 10 years. And on Thursday 20 June, they gathered one last time to reflect on what they had accomplished. Director-General Pietro Ba [...]

    Read more

  • 34th ITER Council | Updated baseline presented

    Nearly 100 people met for two days last week for the 34th Meeting of the ITER Council. The meeting was an important one, as the ITER Organization and the D [...]

    Read more

  • Cryopumps | First unit reaches ITER

    The ITER vacuum team, the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy, Research Instruments (RI), and the ITER Director-General were all excited to welcome the d [...]

    Read more

  • Tritium Plant Summit | A shared vision to prepare for delivery

    A summit organized at ITER Headquarters from 3 to 6 June brought together the international teams that will deliver the sub-systems of the ITER Tritium Plant. I [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Assembly tools

Titan moves its little finger

A few days ago, one of the Titans in the Assembly Hall woke up and flexed its little finger. The movement was slow, almost imperceptible. Like in a living body, nerves and muscles (in the form of signal cables and hydraulic pumps) coordinated their action to lift and lower one of the upper alignment units at the top of the giant sector sub-assembly tool—one of the first steps in the mechanical tests program being performed on the spectacular, 20-metre high twin Titans.

No fewer than 20 hydraulic cylindrical rods actuated by hydraulic/pneumatic forces enable the giant tool to adjust the different elements of the pre-assembly with millimetric accuracy. The hydraulic fluid circulates between dozens of pumps throughout a 500-metre-long network of pipes. (Click to view larger version...)
No fewer than 20 hydraulic cylindrical rods actuated by hydraulic/pneumatic forces enable the giant tool to adjust the different elements of the pre-assembly with millimetric accuracy. The hydraulic fluid circulates between dozens of pumps throughout a 500-metre-long network of pipes.
The sector sub-assembly tools (SSAT) are the largest tools in the ITER assembly panoply. Their task is to pre-assemble a vacuum vessel sector with its thermal shield and two toroidal field coils. Opening and closing their arms, adjusting the position of their upper and lower alignment units, they will repeat sub-assembly operations nine times, once for each of the Tokamak's nine vacuum vessel sectors.

The pre-assemblies, weighing approximately 1,200 tonnes, will then be transferred to the assembly pit by way of a double overhead gantry crane to be integrated into the machine.

Before this can happen, however, two major milestones need to be accomplished: the completion of full mechanical and load tests on both SSATs, and the erection of a steel structure over of the Tokamak Building to "close over" the Tokamak Pit and allow the Assembly Hall crane bays to be extended.

Load tests are scheduled to begin in early June, and preparation work has already started for the extension of the crane bays.

Click here to view a video of the Titan's awakening.

return to the latest published articles