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Sector module #7 finalized

Today’s achievement, tomorrow’s “routine”

31 Mar 2025

Six months and ten days: that’s what it took to assemble the massive elements of sector module #7, one of the nine sectors that will form the torus-shaped vacuum vessel that will house the fusion reactions. Lessons learned from the assembly of sector module #6¹ plus a streamlined work organization, improved methods and procedures, and the dependability and performance of upgraded tools have divided by three the time required to finalize this strategic “building block” of the ITER machine.

It took only 6 months and 10 days to assemble a 440-tonne vacuum vessel, its corresponding thermal shield and two 330-tonne toroidal field coils into a vacuum vessel module. On Friday 28 March, the teams that contributed to this remarkable achievement gathered at the foot of the completed module to celebrate.

A “sector module” is built from three important components—a vacuum vessel sector (440 tonnes), its thermal shield, and two vertical toroidal field coils (330 tonnes each).

On Friday 28 March, the teams that contributed to this remarkable achievement gathered at the foot of the tool suspending the completed module to celebrate. Soberly, ITER Machine Assembly Program Manager Jens Reich declared that the milestone had been achieved “in the assigned time frame” … and even a bit earlier than anticipated. In a more emotional address, Sergio Orlandi, the head of ITER Construction Project recalled the difficulties encountered, expressed his pride in the teams and confessed feeling “like in a dream”—a feeling that was shared by Tai Jiang, the president of CNPE-Europe and head of the CNPE team on the ITER site. (The CNPE consortium is the principal contractor for tokamak assembly on site.)

From left to right: Tai Jiang, president of CNPE-Europe and head of the CNPE team on the ITER site; Sergio Orlandi, head of ITER Construction Project; Jens Reich, Machine Assembly Program Manager; Nicolas Sapet, ITER Sector Modules Assembly Project Leader; and Nicolas Vendeuvre, the contract responsible officer.

Sergio pledged that today’s achievement will be tomorrow routine, with one module being installed in the tokamak pit “every two to three months.” Nicolas Sapet, leader of the Sector Modules Assembly Project, was certain that the teams would do “even better for the next one.” As for Kijung Jung, the director of ITER Korea which had procured the vacuum vessel sector at the centre of the module as well as the thermal shield, he stressed the importance of continuing to work in the same spirit of commitment and dedication—all the way to the end of machine assembly, through commissioning and into machine operation. 

¹The assembly of sector module #6 lasted 18 months. The module was installed in the tokamak pit in May 2022. Affected by dimensional non-conformities that required significant repair, the module was extracted from the pit in January 2023. Repairs have now been finalized and sector module #6 will be second installed inside the pit.

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