The ITER Vacuum Vessel, the heart of the ITER machine which houses the fusion reaction, is a veritable piece of art. With its massive dimensions, its shape necessitates massive stainless steel pieces of metal being joined together by welding challenging geometrical forms.
Each sector of the Vacuum Vessel consists of four poloidal segments joined together, and the smaller parts of a poloidal segment have been welded together to form a bigger piece – the first sub-assembly of the poloidal segment 2 of Vacuum Vessel sector 5. In total, this sub-assembly boasts a length of 2.2 m, a width of between 2.3 and 3.3 m, and a height of 35–50 cm. In total, the sub-assembly weighs over 6 T.
The AMW consortium has been dealing with this crucial sequence in the fabrication of F4E’s contribution to the ITER Vacuum Vessel. It was carried out jointly at the AMW sub-supplier ProBeam facility in Germany and at the Walter Tosto facility in Italy.
