An animation explains the complex assembly of ITER’s internal components.An animation titled “Roll them, turn them, bolt them” explains the complex assembly of ITER’s in-vessel components such as the in-vessel coils, the blanket system and the divertor.
ITER (originally an acronym of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor and Latin for “the way” or “the road”) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering project, which is currently building the world’s largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor adjacent to the Cadarache facility in the south of France. You can learn more about the ITER project from a short video produced for the Monaco ITER International Fusion Energy Days (MIIFED) conference.
SEE ALSO: Fusion Enthusiast Builds ITER Model from Lego
The arrival of the first components on the ITER site will be the starter pistol for one of the most complex stage shows ever performed: the assembly of the ITER machine. The new eight-minute animation details how the ITER assembly process will be carried out.
The production of this eight-minute animation was certainly not as challenging as the assembly of the world’s largest fusion device, yet it was no small matter. Some 31,688 individual objects had to be managed per scene requiring the experienced hands of four graphic artists and animation specialists from the German-based company Motion-e-Motion. Their job was to sort out vast CATIA data sets describing the ITER machine, to reduce them, and then to “map, shade and rig” (in video terms). Eight computers with powerful Intel i7 processors took on the job, sweating for 168 long hours to render the data into a high-definition movie.
