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 | 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 [...]

    Read more

  • 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 [...]

    Read more

  • 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 [...]

    Read more

  • Toroidal field coil celebration | "A good day for the world"

    A little before 2:00 a.m. on 17 April 2020 a powerful transport trailer, accompanied by dozens of technical and security vehicles, passed the gates of the I [...]

    Read more

  • Press conference | New baseline to prioritize robust start to exploitation

    At a press conference on 3 July attended by approximately 200 journalists and key ITER stakeholders, ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi answered questions [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Image of the week

The shine of silver

All ITER components are precious. But some look more precious than others.

The vacuum vessel thermal shield comprises nine 40° sectors. Sector #6 is pictured here, ready to be packed and shipped to ITER. (Click to view larger version...)
The vacuum vessel thermal shield comprises nine 40° sectors. Sector #6 is pictured here, ready to be packed and shipped to ITER.
A vacuum vessel sector, a toroidal field coil, a cryopump, or a divertor cassette are priceless pieces of high technology. But they could hardly pass for jewelry.

The thermal shield could. Because its mission is to protect the tokamak's superconducting coils from thermal radiation, it is coated with the most efficient of "low-emissivity" materials. And this material happens to be ... silver.

Given the size of the thermal shield (approximately 2,000 square metres), a 5- to 10-micrometre-thick silver plating on both sides requires no less than 5 tonnes¹ of the precious metal—enough to make 625,000 sterling silver rings.

A first finalized sector of the vacuum vessel thermal shield (sector #6) has left the SFA Engineering Corp in Changwon, Korea, to be delivered to ITER.

¹Five tonnes of silver will be required in the electroplating baths. The mass of silver coating the thermal shield panels is estimated at just under 800 kg total.

return to the latest published articles