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

  • 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 [...]

    Read more

  • 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 [...]

    Read more

  • 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

Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Machine assembly

Another faultless sequence

Finalized by Japan in January 2020, delivered to ITER two months later, toroidal field coil #12 (TF12) has moved yet another step closer to its final installation inside the assembly pit as part of the first "pre-assembly" of the ITER machine. In a series of operations that started on Wednesday 9 June and concluded six days later, the 320-tonne component, securely fastened to the upending tool, was successively tilted 90° in mid-air, re-positioned vertically on the floor, extracted from its massive steel cradle, and eventually attached to the left wing of one the twin sector sub-assembly tools (SSAT-1).

In a series of operations that started on Wednesday 9 June and concluded six days later, TF12 was successfully attached to the left wing of one the twin sector sub-assembly tools (SSAT-1). The 320-tonne coil will be moved to SSAT-2 in about a month for the actual pre-assembly operations. (Click to view larger version...)
In a series of operations that started on Wednesday 9 June and concluded six days later, TF12 was successfully attached to the left wing of one the twin sector sub-assembly tools (SSAT-1). The 320-tonne coil will be moved to SSAT-2 in about a month for the actual pre-assembly operations.
The component will remain in this position for about a month, before it is moved to the other sector sub-assembly tool (SSAT-2) for the actual pre-assembly operations. There are several reasons for this temporary stopover: available space in the Assembly Hall is scarce, the upending tool will soon be needed for TF13 (TF12's "partner" in the first pre-assembly), and the complexity of installing a one-of-a-kind component in a one-of-a-kind tool called for rehearsal in actual conditions. "In a way, it was a kind of training," said Head of the ITER Sector Modules Delivery & Assembly Division Chang Ho Choi on Tuesday afternoon as the operation came to a close.

Although it was "a bit longer than anticipated," the operation was "quite successful, with no show-stopper, no physical mismatching, and no major adjustments required. It all went very smoothly," confirms Chang Ho.

What took time and required almost a full day of delicate tweaking was the "balancing" of the load, once it was detached from the upending tool. Although the whole sequence had been practiced with a dummy load whose weight and general shape was representative of a D-shaped 320-tonne toroidal coil, and although models and calculations had determined the coil's theoretical gravity centre, balancing the load was to prove a long and painstaking process.

By Tuesday 15 June, six days after operations started, TF12 travelled safely into the left wing of tool #1. In two weeks, TF13 (also from Japan) will be placed in the upending tool to later follow the same sequence of operations, this time directly into SSAT-2.

Lessons learned in the present operation will prove priceless. In the course of machine assembly, this very sequence will need to be performed 18 times.

return to the latest published articles