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Inside the cold factory
23 Sep 2019
Pipes and tanks of all sizes and colours, valves, compressors, truck-size electrical motors, zeppelin-like gas bags, puzzling contraptions evocative of sea monsters ... the ITER cryoplant is a world of industrial strangeness. The installation is unique, larger than any in the world and tasked with a daunting mission: to provide cooling fluids to 10,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, eight massive cryopumps, and thousands of square metres of thermal shielding. As high as a seven-storey building and the size of two soccer fields, the cryoplant is but part of the massive industrial infrastructure required to operate ITER. On the 42-hectare ITER platform, it takes close to 40 buildings, accommodating dozens of different plant systems, to light the little star inside the ITER Tokamak.
As large as two football pitches, the ITER cryoplant provides cooling fluids to 10,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, eight massive cryopumps, and thousands of square metres of thermal shielding.
Scroll through the gallery below for more information on the mechanical installation activities underway now.
A total of 18 helium compressors and associated inlet filters and electrical motors are aligned on two parallel platforms inside the cryoplant.
Evocative of a monster bug or a creature from the depths, this multistage centrifugal compressor pressurizes nitrogen before liquefying it. Liquid nitrogen at 77 K (minus 196 °C) contributes to the cooling process of helium.
Packing the power of approximately 60 electric vehicles, this 4.5 MW motor feeds the multistage centrifugal compressor pictured in the previous slide.
In the liquid helium plant compression station, a narrow corridor separates the two parallel oil removal system skids. Oil is used in the helium compression process but needs to be removed entirely by a set of filters, separators, pumps etc.
Approximately seven kilometres of pipes run through the installation, carrying helium, nitrogen and cooling water for the compressors and other equipment. Cooling water circulation in the cryoplant is in the range of 2,500 cubic metres per hour—the equivalent of an Olympic pool every 30 minutes.
Serving the ITER cold clients requires three "cold boxes" plus a fourth to connect them (the "termination cold box," to the left). The 21-metre components —each weighing about 137 tonnes with internal systems—provide an insulated environment for heat exchangers, cryogenic adsorbers, liquid helium and liquid nitrogen phase separators.