With the successful lift of the final module on 23 June, the stacking of the central solenoid—the powerful magnet at the heart of the ITER tokamak with magnetic force strong enough to raise an aircraft carrier out of the water—is now complete. While crucial technical work remains before the magnet is ready to be transferred into the tokamak pit, the completed stack is a landmark moment for the project and represents the culmination of years of international coordination for the manufacture, transport, and assembly of the component’s magnetic core.
“This was a critical operation and thanks to the excellent work of the well-integrated technical team we have reached an important assembly milestone,” says Patrick Petit, ITER’s In-Cryostat Assembly Project Leader. “This success is a concrete demonstration of the effective cooperation between ITER and its partners.”
Standing 18 metres tall and weighing almost 1,000 tonnes, the central solenoid will induce the plasma current needed to initiate and help control the fusion reaction inside the tokamak. Procured by the US Domestic Agency, the central solenoid’s six main modules and one spare module were manufactured by General Atomics in California using niobium-tin superconducting conductor produced in Japan.
