ITER Ships Vacuum Vessel Sector 9 from Monfalcone in Assembly Milestone

Vacuum-vessel sector 9 left the Westinghouse Mangiarotti facility in Monfalcone on 21 February, wrapped and secured in a custom metal stillage before being loaded onto a ship and set sail on the Adriatic Sea for Fos-sur-Mer, the industrial port serving ITER. ITER’s photo caption notes the 400‑tonne sector is the third of five expected from Europe and will arrive at ITER in March, while Fusion for Energy published images showing the component inserted into protective housing at the Monfalcone quay.

The shipment follows a tightly choreographed logistics chain. Fusion for Energy and Ansaldoenergia say sector 9 was escorted from the Westinghouse/Mangiarotti factory to the nearby harbour, then routed by sea to Fos-sur-Mer where it will be transferred onto a heavy trailer for the overland drive to the ITER site. LinkedIn posts from the consortium confirm the departure and describe the sector as sailing to France, while Fusion for Energy framed the outbound move as completion on schedule of a project deadline set three years ago.

Size and weight figures vary across program communications. ITER’s caption describes sector 9 as a 400‑tonne bare sector, World Nuclear News reports typical wedge-shaped steel sectors weigh 440 tonnes and measure more than 14 metres in height, and a consortium LinkedIn post lists the departing unit at 500 tonnes and 12 metres high by 6 metres wide. World Nuclear News also provides the broader vessel context: assembled vacuum vessel interior volume 1,400 cubic metres, outer diameter 19.4 metres, assembled height 11.4 metres and a steel-only mass of about 5,200 tonnes rising to 8,500 tonnes after blankets and divertor installation.

Manufacture and quality work for Europe’s vacuum-vessel effort were intensive. World Nuclear News and Ansaldoenergia say the effort built on ten years of work, involved more than 150 professionals across at least 15 companies and required more than 20,000 hours of machining plus at least 100,000 hours of welding for Europe’s first sector. Each sector contains roughly 150 kilometres of welding beads and more than 2,000 welded supports or “bosses” for magnetic sensors, illustrated in ITER imagery showing a dense forest of internal attachments.

The AMW consortium and F4E drove production and on-site coordination. Luca Ascione, Project Director for the AMW Consortium, said: “We are proud of this outstanding milestone, achieved thanks to the dedication and skill of the AMW consortium staff and the effective collaboration with F4E and ITER Organization. The sector fully meets the stringent quality requirements of ITER and is ready for the subsequent assembly phases.” F4E Site Manager Andrés Dans added: “The gamechanger was the close relation between F4E and the suppliers. We work as a single, integrated team. F4E’s presence on the ground is essential. We can follow the production first-hand and, when issues appear, we work out solutions directly with our partners.” Marc Lachaise of F4E highlighted the partnership behind Europe’s first sector, and Dan Sumner of Westinghouse noted the years of work at the Monfalcone facility leading to this shipment.

On arrival at ITER, sector 9 will join Europe’s sector 5 already on the Tokamak Pit and sector 4 in sub-assembly, then be lowered into tooling using the site’s heavy handling kit including 1,500‑tonne bridge cranes and sub-assembly tool SSAT2. With sector 6 and thermal shielding already supplied by the Korean Domestic Agency, the networked delivery and assembly of these wedge-shaped sectors keeps ITER’s vacuum-vessel build moving toward the next assembly milestones. The consortium’s LinkedIn snapshot of the departure drew strong engagement, underscoring industry attention as sector 9 begins its final transit to the fusion site.