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Vice President Won Kwang-sik of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (left) receives a plaque of appreciation from ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi at the KOREA-ITER Fusion Day event in Cadarache, southern France, on the 22nd / Photo courtesy of HD Hyundai

Assembly of the final sector module for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) vacuum vessel manufactured by HD Hyundai Heavy Industries has been completed. With construction of ITER, the world's largest nuclear fusion project, entering its final stages, evaluations suggest that the realization of future nuclear fusion energy has moved a step closer.

According to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries on July 23, the last vacuum vessel sector was recently assembled at the ITER construction site in Cadarache, southern France, into a sector module combining thermal shields and superconducting magnets. The module was moved to the tokamak pit for final assembly and will be joined with the remaining eight sector modules to form a donut-shaped vacuum vessel weighing about 5,000 tons.

ITER is the world's largest experimental fusion reactor project being jointly constructed in Cadarache, France, by seven member countries: South Korea, the European Union (EU), the United States, Japan, China, Russia, and India. It aims to produce clean energy by replicating sun-like fusion reactions on Earth.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries manufactured four of the nine total vacuum vessel sectors comprising ITER. After securing two sectors allocated to South Korea in 2010, the company additionally obtained two sectors from the EU's quota in 2016 and delivered all of them by 2024.

The vacuum vessel is a core facility of ITER that confines ultra-high-temperature plasma exceeding 100 million degrees Celsius and maintains a high vacuum state. It is a massive structure measuring 11.3 meters in height, 6.6 meters in width, and weighing about 400 tons. Extreme manufacturing precision is required so that each sector can be joined without error. It must also comply with French nuclear pressure vessel regulations, international nuclear technology standards, and the strict quality and safety criteria of the ITER Organization.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries successfully executed the manufacturing of the vacuum vessel sectors based on its large-scale structure fabrication technology and quality control capabilities accumulated through shipbuilding and offshore plant construction. In recognition of these contributions, the company received a plaque of appreciation at the "KOREA-ITER Fusion Day" event held at the ITER construction site in Cadarache, France, on July 22 (local time).

About 150 participants, including officials from the Ministry of Science and ICT, Korean companies, research institutes, and the ITER Organization, attended the event to share progress on ITER construction, highlight South Korea's major procurement achievements, and discuss measures to expand international cooperation in fusion energy.

Won Kwang-sik, Vice President of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, said, "The successful manufacturing and installation of the ITER vacuum vessel sectors represent an important milestone demonstrating the technological competitiveness and international cooperation of Korea's industrial sector," adding, "HD Hyundai Heavy Industries will continue to contribute to realizing sustainable energy for future generations based on our accumulated technology and experience."

                                                                                                             Kim Han-seul