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Sector #8 on the move
18 Sep 2023
After spending just about one year in vertical tooling, vacuum vessel sector #8 has been returned to a horizontal orientation for removal from the Assembly Hall.
In September 2022, the 440-tonne component had been moved into the sector sub-assembly tool that had been left vacant after the installation of sector module #6 in the Tokamak pit. Assembly teams were planning the same suite of activities that had created a "module" out of sector #6—that is, association of the sector with two toroidal field coils and inboard and outboard thermal shield panels.
Plans had to be revised when it was reported that major repairs would be required to correct non-conformities in the geometry of the vacuum vessel sectors, and that thermal shields would have to be repaired or replaced to correct occurances (or risk) of stress corrosion cracking.
Vacuum vessel sector #8 was removed from the sector sub-assembly tool to an "upending" cradle. And from there it was moved this week to a horizontal platform. The component will be carefully wrapped in order to leave the controlled environment of the Assembly Hall for a period of storage in the Cryostat Workshop. Sector #8 is the third of three sectors to be repaired, so work will not begin immediately.