Cryostat welding underway in India
28 Feb 2014
On Tuesday, 9 January, workers at Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Heavy Engineering facility in Hazira, India, gathered for a picture as the first longitudinal seam of the cryostat base section was readied for welding.
Welding operations on the ITER Cryostat have gotten underway at the Larsen & Toubro Ltd. Heavy Engineering facility in Hazira, India.
On Tuesday, 9 January, workers gathered for a picture as the first longitudinal seam of the cryostat base section was readied for "submerged arc welding."
The 3,800-tonne, stainless steel cryostat forms the vacuum-tight container surrounding the ITER vacuum vessel and magnets. It will act as a very large refrigerator, keeping the magnets at superconducting temperature (4.2 K or minus 269° C).
The ITER cryostat, part of Indian procurement responsibilities, will be dispatched from India in 54 modules to be assembled into four large sections in the on-site Cryostat Workshop.
The four sections (base, lower cylinder, upper cylinder and top lid) will then be transported to the Tokamak Pit, where they will be welded together.
The base section of the cryostat will be the first large component installed in the Tokamak Pit. The top lid of the cryostat will be the last, set into place after the installation of the vacuum vessel, magnets, thermal shielding and central solenoid.
Delivery of the first modules on the ITER site is expected in less than two years.
(With Dilshad Sulaiman, ITER India)