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Image of the week

From table to platform

28 Feb 2022
As the yellow lifting tools and devices are progressively removed from the central solenoid module on the left, the platform to the right is being equipped for the first stages of assembly.
CSM1_on_Table_small.jpg
In the ITER Assembly Hall, the temporary table (left) and assembly platform (right) are side by side in the space reserved for the central solenoid assembly. Before the first module can be transferred to the platform, its instrumentation, sensors and superconducting joints must be carefully checked and tested.
This central solenoid module is the first¹ in a set of six that, once stacked, connected and compressed, will form the most powerful industrial magnet ever constructed. Positioned at the center of the ITER tokamak, this 18-metre-tall magnet is the key component that will allow a powerful current to be induced in the ITER plasma and maintained during long plasma pulses.

The assembly operations will take place in the Assembly Hall, on the massive platform to the right of the image. The stack, totaling 1,000 tonnes when all six modules are in place, will be supported by nine "lower key blocks" arranged in a circle, four of which are already in place on the platform. On the floor, in front of the platform, a fifth sits upside down with its locating rods pointing up. Removable hydraulic jacks inside the key blocks will exert huge pressure (210 meganewtons²) on the module stack and keep it in mechanical compression.

In approximately one month, the module will be moved from the table to the platform and the assembly process will begin in earnest. 

¹ A second central solenoid module has already been delivered to ITER.

² A meganewton (MN) is a unit of force corresponding to the force required to accelerate a mass of one million kilograms by one metre per second.

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