Making parts for ITER

MAN Energy Solutions has assembled two further core-components for the world’s largest nuclear fusion experiment, ITER, in Cadarache, southern France.

In addition to the already-completed ‘lower cylinder’, the new components (base section and upper cylinder) are central to the construction of the cryostat – the largest stainless steel, high-vacuum chamber ever built – which will form the exterior of the fusion reactor. When fully assembled, the cryostat will be 30 m tall with a volume of 16,000 m³.

The ITER project aims to build a fusion reactor operating on the principle of magnetic confinement. The vacuum vessel will contain atomic nuclei of hydrogen isotopes – deuterium and tritium – which fuse into helium. The heat generated by this process will be used to generate 500 MW of thermal power.