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FR
Component handling

Vacuum vessel #8 back in upending tool

24 Mar 2025

The tokamak assembly pit, a vast cylindrical space that is 30 metres deep and 30 metres in diameter, was not meant to be used as a temporary storage facility. It came in handy, however, when the need arose to find a solution to “flip” 440-tonne vacuum vessel sector #8 in order to complete repairs on its otherwise inaccessible side.
 

On Tuesday 18 March, following two weeks of temporary storage in the tokamak assembly pit, vacuum vessel sector #8 was positioned vertically into the upending tool with its unrepaired side facing outward. In the coming days, the massive component will be returned to the former Cryostat Workshop where repairs will be finalized.

For approximately one year, teams had been busy rectifying the massive component’s geometry along its joint surfaces (bevels) in order to recover nominal dimensions. Lying horizontally on its frame, the sector could only present one of its sides to the machining tools, automated welding machines or operators at work in the former Cryostat Workshop. In order to access the opposite side, the component needed to be flipped—a momentous task for a highly-sophisticated chunk of steel as heavy as a jumbo jet and as tall as a five-storey building.

In early February this year, a self-propelled modular transporter (SPMT) moved the half-repaired component to the Assembly Hall, where it was lifted, placed in the upending tool, turned to vertical and eventually deposited inside the tokamak assembly pit. As the twin sector sub-assembly tools (SSAT 1 and 2) are both occupied, and as the upending tool needed to be adapted in order to receive vacuum vessel sector #8 once it had been rotated, temporary storage inside the tokamak pit was the only available option.

The coming months will see a flurry of activity in the assembly theatre, with sector module #7 (left, inside SSAT 1) scheduled to be installed in the pit in April, followed by sector module #6 in July. At about the same date, sector module #8, by then fully repaired, will be placed in SSAT 2 for assembly.

Adaptations to the upending tool consisted of changing the lifting frame attached to the tool and installing bespoke pads and attachments. On Tuesday 18 March the tool was ready, and vacuum vessel sector #8 was extracted from the tokamak pit and positioned vertically in the upending tool—this time with its unrepaired side facing outward. This week, the exact reverse of February’s operation will be performed and the component will be returned to the former Cryostat Workshop. Three to four months of repairs on the second side will now ensue.

The coming months will see a flurry of activity in the ITER assembly theatre, with sector module #7 scheduled to be installed in the tokamak pit in April, followed by sector module #6 in July. At about the same date, the fully repaired sector module #8 will be placed in SSAT 2 for sub-assembly with its thermal shield and two toroidal field coils. As for the remaining vacuum vessel sectors to be equipped and installed, their handling will be greatly facilitated by the availability of a second, more versatile upending tool set to be delivered to ITER in the coming days.

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