Central solenoid structures and tooling | Innovation gets the job done
US ITER is procuring the elements of the cage-like support structure and specialized tooling that will be required during the assembly of the central solenoid at ITER. During a challenging year, keeping to the fabrication and delivery schedule has meant innovating .
A Climax technician works on a shear pin drill fixture, a critical tool used to prevent rotational movement among the central solenoid superconducting magnets. Photo: ClimaxLike many other ITER staff around the world, US ITER senior project engineer Travis Reagan did not expect to spend most of 2020 working remotely.
Sunshine | The long path to discovery
A little more than one century ago, in 1919, a nagging question received the beginning of an answer. Almost simultaneously, two eminent scientists, Jean Perrin (1870-1942) in France and Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) in the United Kingdom, speculated that the energy source at the core of the Sun was to be found in sub-atomic reactions. Their intuition was a huge departure from the theories that had prevailed for the previous seven decades.
Jean Perrin s intuition that the energy source at the core of the Sun was to be found in sub-atomic reactions was a huge departure from the theories that had prevailed for the previous seven decades.Armed with the science of the mid-19th century, physicists and astronomers had long thought that solar heat resulted from the constant fall of meteors and asteroids into the Sun. In 1841, calculations by Julius von Mayer (1814-1878), a German physician and chemist, indicated that asteroids striking the Sun at hi
Vacuum vessel | Last phase for Europe s sector #5
The first European vacuum vessel sector is entering an important and critical phase: the assembly and welding of four segments into the D-shaped sector. Under the supervision of the European Domestic Agency, the AMW consortium (Ansaldo Nucleare, Mangiarotti, Walter Tosto), supported by an extended network of sub-suppliers located in France, Germany and Spain, is ready for the challenge.
Final machining is underway on one segment for sector #5 at Walter Tosto (Chieti, Italy). Four segments (inboard, upper, equatorial and lower) will be assembled into the final D-shaped sector.
Four poloidal segments are assembled into the final 40-degree vacuum vessel sector.Vacuum vessel sector #5 will be the first of five sectors delivered to ITER by the European Domestic Agency. It has been more than nine years in the making, leading the pack as the European AMW consortium carried out extensive R&D and prototyping, learned to organize manufactu
Blanket first wall | Manufacturing kicks off in Europe
For one of the most demanding technological components of the ITER machine the first wall of the blanket the European Domestic Agency Fusion for Energy made the decision early on to involve different suppliers in a multiyear manufacturing qualification effort that concluded with the realization of full-scale prototypes. The effort has paid off, as two consortia have now been awarded production contracts.
A real-size prototype of the ITER blanket first wall panel produced by Atmostat-Alsyom for Fusion for Energy. Europe is responsible for 215 out of the 440 first wall panels required for the ITER device.Completely covering the interior surfaces of the ITER vacuum vessel is the blanket a protective component designed to protect the rest of the reactor by absorbing most of the radiative and particle heat fluxes from the hot plasma, as well as by stopping or slowing down most of the neutrons that result from the fusion reaction