At the divertor integration facility in Qinshan, China, preparations are complete. The clean room is operational, air filtration systems are running, and divertor components in various stages of unpacking are spread across the polished floor.
For now, the elements visible in the workshop are prototypes that will be used to test processes and tools during the first practice integration activities later this year. But alongside the prototypes, production components are already arriving from suppliers around the world, as years of development and manufacturing give way to a new chapter for the ITER divertor program—integration.
ITER engineer Laurent Ferrand, who has been involved with the ITER divertor program for nearly 20 years, calls this “an exciting phase ahead.”
“We are turning our sights to the assembly and integration of components that have up to now been the focus of individual development programs. That allows us to start the countdown to the installation of the divertor in the ITER machine. It really does feel like a new phase.”
Following a global tender, the ITER Organization concluded a contract for divertor integration in December 2024 with a consortium led by the Southwestern Institute of Physics (SWIP)¹.
Dedicated facilities—including a warehouse, a workshop, and a clean room—were officially inaugurated in May in the presence of divertor team members from the ITER Organization and representatives of the Domestic Agencies responsible for divertor manufacturing—Europe (cassette bodies and inner vertical targets), Japan (outer vertical targets), and Russia (dome). (See the graphic below.)
