Fusion project ITER: video shows removal of the first 80-tonne radial beam
At the ITER fusion experiment, the first of nine radial beams has been lifted out of the tokamak pit. An ITER video shows the operation – a sign that assembly is moving forward.
Photo: Oak Ridge National Laboratory / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · iterorganization · youtube.com
At the construction site of the international ITER fusion experiment in southern France, the first so-called radial beam was lifted out of the tokamak pit on 7 October. The ITER Organization announced this on 12 October; a short video on its official YouTube channel shows the removal of the 80-tonne beam. According to ITER, the operation took a little under two hours and involved more than 20 people.
The nine radial beams are temporary lifting and holding tools: they support the vacuum vessel sector modules, which weigh more than 1,000 tonnes, as they are lowered into the pit, and then hold them in place for months between the central column and the bioshield wall. Only once a sector is aligned and its load has been transferred to the gravity supports and the so-called crown does the beam come out. The first one belonged to sector module #5. Sébastien Koczorowski, ITER's Deputy Program Manager for machine assembly, called it an important milestone.
With the beam gone, welding and ex-vessel assembly work can now begin in the pit. Three more beams are to follow in rapid succession, according to assembly engineer Colin Smith. The last sector module is scheduled to be lowered into the pit in spring 2027 and the last radial beam removed in September 2027.