Image of the week
The cryostat top lid, batch after batch
18 Jan 2021
Batch after batch, the elements for the top lid of the ITER cryostat keep arriving from India. As of today, 7 out of the 12 required segments have been delivered. The lid is a complex component that integrates a number of auxiliary elements such as a central cover, a central cylinder, a manway, lip seals, fasteners and several supports for the thermal shield.
Elements for the top lid of the cryostat keep arriving from India. Pictured here are the 30-tonne top lid central cover, which arrived at ITER in September 2020, and one of the sectors (#1) that arrived last week.
The circular component pictured at the forefront of this image is the top lid central cover (8.2 metres in diameter, and weighing slightly in excess of 30 tonnes), which arrived at ITER in September 2020. In the rear is one of the segments (#1) that was part of last Thursday's delivery to the ITER site, along with segment #7 and the top lid's central cylinder.
At 665 tonnes, the cryostat top lid is the second heaviest component of the whole machine. Only the cryostat base at 1,250 tonnes tops it on the scale.