Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968

Detailed design and fabrication method of the upper

and lower ports for the ITER vacuum vessel
H.J. Ahn a,∗ , T.H. Kwon a , Y.S. Hong a , Y.K. Kim a , C.D. Lee a ,
K.H. Park b , J.S. Lee b , T.S. Kim b , S. Cho c , N.I. Her c , B.C. Kim c
aElectro-Mechanical Research Institute, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd., 102-18 Mabuk-dong,
Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 446-716, Republic of Korea
b Industrial Plant & Engineering Division, Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd.,

1, Jeonha-dong, Dong-gu, Ulsan 682-792, Republic of Korea

c National Fusion Research Center, 52 Yeoeun-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-333, Republic of Korea

Received 27 July 2006; received in revised form 2 February 2007; accepted 5 February 2007
Available online 19 March 2007

Abstract

The detailed design of the vacuum vessel port structures has been developed based on the conceptual design of the ITER IT
(international team) and PT (participant team). The special emphasis was laid on the flange joint between the port extension and
the in-port plug to develop the design of the upper port. The structural analyses of the lower RH port have been also performed
to verify the capacity for supporting the VV. The fabrication method and the sequence of the detailed fabrication for the ports are
developed focusing on the cost reduction as well as the structural simplification. Tolerance study has been performed to avoid
the mismatch of each fabricated component and to obtain the suitable tolerances in the assembly at the shop and site. From the
several structural analyses and the development of the fabrication method, the upper and lower port designs have been improved
and it also complies with the design specification.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: International thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER); Vacuum vessel; Port; Flange; Structural analysis

1. Introduction national team (IT) with the cooperation of several

The engineering design of the vacuum vessel (VV)
of the ITER has been progressed by the ITER inter-
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 31 289 5251;
fax: +82 31 289 5150.
E-mail address: hjahn@hhi.co.kr (H.J. Ahn).
participant teams (PT). The VV and ports are among
the components allocated to Korea for the construc-
tion of the ITER. The main components of the VV
are main vessel, port structures, and in-wall shield-
ing. The primary functions of the VV are to provide
a high quality vacuum for the plasma, as well as
the first containment barrier of radioactive materials.

0920-3796/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2007.02.001
 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968
Fig. 1. Typical configuration of a 40◦ VV sector.
Most of the port components are made of double
wall construction with stiffening ribs between walls.
The VV has 18 upper, 14 regular equatorial, 3 NB
(neutral beam) equatorial, and 9 lower port structures
used for diagnostics, equipment installation, utility
feedthroughs, vacuum pumping, and access for main-
tenance. The VV consists of nine sectors. Typical
configuration of one ninth VV is shown in Fig. 1
[1].
Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. (HHI) has been
involved in the structural analysis, detailed design
and development of the fabrication method of the
upper and lower ports within the framework of the
ITER transitional arrangements (ITA). The detailed
design of the port structures, the development of
fabrication methods for the port components and
the studies for the fabrication and assembly toler-
ances of the port components are described in this
paper.
1961
2. Detailed design
2.1. Detailed design of upper port
The vacuum vessel has 18 upper ports at the
upper level of the machine. The upper ports have a
trapezoidal or rectangular cross-section, and inclined
upwards. These ports are located in every section
between the toroidal field coils and will be used
for diagnostics, plasma stabilization, and inlet/outlet
piping for the blanket/VV water. A typical upper port
consists of port stub, stub extension, port extension,
connecting duct and port plug as shown in Fig. 2
[2].
The special emphasis was laid on the flange joint
between the port extension and the in-port plug to
develop the design of the upper port. Detailed design
of the upper port flange has been carried out based
on the original design, 2004 EDA developed by ITER
IT and PT. In order to fasten the port plug, use of
24 pieces of M36 bolts with tangential keys was
designed in the original design as shown in Fig. 3(a).
While equatorial ports are only subjected to the radial
moment as a major design load, the upper ports are
subjected to the poloidal and toroidal moments as
well as the radial moment. To endure these bending
moments, higher force of bolt tightening is required
by increasing the number of bolts. Therefore, the
modified design with a pure friction type flange with
48 pieces of M36 bolts instead of tangential key
is recommended for tight connection as shown in
Fig. 3(b).
Design calculation and structural analysis have been
performed to review the feasibility of flange designs.
Maximum effective design moments of 2.1 MN m
(radial), 3.74 MN m (poloidal), and 1.54 MN m
(toroidal) were considered. The global and local
structural analyses have been conducted for the radial
and poloidal moment which is more severe than the
toroidal moment [3]. It has been found that partial
opening at the flange surface of the original design
occurs but no gap occurs at the flange of the modified
design for the poloidal moment. The upper port flange
based on the original design can withstand the design
radial moment and tangential keys sustain 57% of
the radial moment. It can be found from the load
calculation that the friction of compressed flanges
in the modified design could support the design
1962 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968

Fig. 2. Configuration of the upper port.

Fig. 3. Sectional views of upper port flange designs.

radial moment using Inconel 718 bolts as shown in

Table 1.
The ITER IT proposed the advanced flange design Table 1
called concept A and concept B for the equatorial Endurable radial moment of modified design for upper port
port, and these concepts have been developed for the Material of bolt AISI 600 Inconel 718
upper port by the HHI. The concept A is basically Yield strength of bolt (MPa) 585 1034
the same as the original design except bolts. This Pretension per bolt (kN) 296 393
design uses 36 pieces of M52 superbolts as shown Endurable torque (MN m) 1.96 2.60
Ratioa 0.93 1.24
in Fig. 4(a). The concept B is introduced to make the
maintenance of the bolt re-tightening from outside a Ratio = Permissible moment/effective moment.
 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968
Fig. 4. Sectional views of concept A and concept B.
of vacuum boundary easy in service operation. This
design consists of up to 24 pieces of M52 superbolts
used to assemble port plug and removable flange, and
up to 32 pieces of M52 superbolts used to assemble
port extension and removable flange as shown in
Fig. 4(b). The stiffness of port and plug is reduced
by the removable flange and groove for the nuts,
so that the deformation of the port plug becomes
larger.
Compact flexnut holders are recommended for con-
cept B to increase the stiffness of the port plug by divid-
ing the continuous groove for the nut pocket. But in this
case, the numbers of the bolts are reduced to 20 pieces
for the port plug, and 28 for the port extension. The nor-
mal pretension for AISI 660 M52 bolt is 645 kN, but
the pretension can be increased by 1050 kN using the
bolts of P&S Company. The sustainable moments for
various designs of the upper port flange are compared
in Table 2. The compact design can be accepted by
1963
applying the bolts of the P&S Company, but, the total
displacement of the plug is not decreased significantly.
The criteria for the displacement of the port plug should
be evaluated in order to finally adopt the design of the
concept B.
2.2. Detailed design of lower port
A vacuum vessel has 9 lower ports and 18 local
penetrations at lower level. The lower ports have a
trapezoidal or rectangular cross-section, and inclined
downwards. These ports include three ports for the
diverter cassette remote handling (RH) and diagnostics,
two dedicated diagnostic ports, and four ports for the
vacuum pumping. The lower ports provide the VV sup-
porting components in radial and vertical directions. A
typical lower RH port consists of the port stub, the stub
extension, the port extension, the connecting duct, the
closure plate, the reinforcing block, the divertor rail
1964 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968

Table 2
Sustainable moment for the upper port flange designs
Item Number of bolt Bolt pretension Sustainable Sustainable
torque ratio moment ratio
Concept A 36-M52 Normala 1.00 1.00
Highb 1.63 1.63

Concept B 24-M52 (plug) Normal 0.71 0.78

High 1.16 1.26

32-M52 (port) Normal 0.78 0.96

High 1.26 1.56

Compact design 20-M52 (plug) Normal 0.63 0.70

of Concept B
High 1.02 1.13

28-M52 (port) Normal 0.71 0.84

High 1.16 1.37
a Normal pretension by applying AISI 600 bolts.
b High pretension by applying bolts of P&S Company.

and the basement for vacuum vessel support as shown
in Fig. 5.
The mechanical loads affecting a divertor remote
handling port are mainly due to the supporting function
of this port. The dead weight of a main vessel and the
in-vessel components is supported during the normal
operation, and electromagnetic loads are transmitted
during various plasma events [2].
The connection region between the lower port and
the main VV structure requires a special attention
because all the horizontal and vertical forces exerted
on the VV and in-vessel components are transferred
from this region to the supports at the lower ports.
The port opening generates stress concentrations due
to a geometrical discontinuity. Several reinforcement
options for this region have been considered and

Fig. 5. Configuration of the lower RH port.

 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968
Fig. 6. Gusset and supporting block of lower RH port.
analyzed by ITER IT and PT. The finally selected
reinforcement option corresponds to Fig. 6(a). This
reinforcement consists of poloidal and toroidal gussets
of 100 mm thickness at the top port corners. The
thickness of the VV outer shell and the port outer shell
is 60 mm at the LP/VV attachment. The supporting
block is shown in Fig. 6(b). High rigidity should be
kept in the vertical and radial direction in order to
withstand the loads such as dead weight and seismic
load. The linkage system and dampers are employed at
the bottom of the supporting block to accommodate the
thermal expansion and to absorb the impact during fast
transients.
The structural analysis of the lower RH port has
been performed to verify the capacity for supporting the
VV. The high stress occurs at the intersection between
the stub extension and the support block, and between
the main vessel and the reinforcing block as shown
in Fig. 7. Since the stress more than the allowable
stress occurs at these parts locally, the in-depth study
is needed. More elaborate design analysis will be per-
formed in the future to mitigate the stress concentration
and to improve the component design. The VV support-
ing system should be considered significantly to apply
more reasonable boundary conditions in the structural
analysis of the lower RH port. The appropriate loading
conditions should be also applied for more accurate
evaluation of structural integrity.
3. Development of fabrication method
The fabrication method for the VV ports has
been developed. It consists of surface treatment,
1965
cutting, forming, machining, cleaning, welding, non-
destructive inspection, and various tests. The objectives
of this task are to avoid the mismatch and leakage of
each fabricated components and to obtain the suitable
tolerances in the assembly at the shop and the site.
SS316-LN-IG has been selected as the main
material for the ITER port structure, while SS304
is used for the connecting ducts. Surface roughness
of the material exposed to an ultra-high vacuum
is important to minimize the out-gassing rate. The
buffing is completed at the rolled plate before or after
welding and is applied to all vacuum area of the port
after final assembly in the shop.
Several cutting methods including plasma cutting,
water jet cutting, and laser cutting have been inves-
tigated. From the viewpoint of thickness, flatness,
dimension, and cost, a proper cutting method is the
plasma cutting. The water jet and the laser-cutting
machine, if necessary, can also be used together with
the plasma-cutting machine. The test results of the CNC
plasma cutting are shown in Table 3.
The forming and plastic work shall be applied to the
sub extension, the port extension, the connecting duct
and the accessory parts of the upper and lower ports.
The cold bending requires a 1500 t press with a special
dies instead of a bending roller for the precise work.
Table 3
Test results of CNC plasma cutting
Plate thickness Max. surface Average speed Remark
(mm) deviation (mm) (mm/min)
40 1 300 Good
60 2 200 Not bad
130 5 70 Bad
1966 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968

Fig. 7. Analysis results of the lower RH port.

Machining of a forging material such as the port exten-
sion, the connecting duct, and the diverter rail, is needed
to make their corner shape rectangular. The protection
paper shall be used between the roller or the ram and the
die in the bending or the forming work to avoid dam-
age. The thick stainless steel plate needs taking care of
the buffing surface during the bending or the forming
work.
The main issues for the machining of the stub exten-
sion, the port extension, and the connecting duct are to
make edge preparation and shape of the forging before
the welding. Any kind of dirt on the surface to be
welded and welding consumables can create a defect in
weld like porosity. Therefore, these shall be removed
through cleaning process before welding. The welding
components need to be fit up using H-beam type brac-
ing and the strong back plate for protection from weld
distortion as shown in Fig. 8.
The applicable welding processes are manual gas
tungsten arc welding (GTAW), mechanized GTAW, gas
metal arc welding (GMAW), electron beam welding,
laser welding and hybrid welding. Selection of weld-

Fig. 8. Configuration of installed bracing of stub extension.

 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968
Fig. 9. Configuration of welded joints.
ing processes shall be considered on the view point
of the weld shapes, welding position, productivity and
accessibility.
The welding of GTAW for the port structure has
three kinds of processes; the mechanized, the man-
ual and the orbital GTAW. The mechanized GTAW
with narrow-gap is recommended for the main seam
welding. Rib to shell welding shall be done using the
mechanized GTAW and the manual GTAW. The orbital
automatic welding is used for the cooling tube. Weld-
ing for the simple morphology area is conducted using
the mechanized welding with narrow gap to minimize
welding deformation. Welding for complicated shape
is done using the manual GTAW welding with narrow
gap [4].
GMAW, however, can be applied only to the fill
welding not to the surface welding. Hot wire welding
system or any other method can be applied in order to
increase the productivity. Welding consumables shall
be selected based on the welding process. The shielding
gas for GTAW shall be argon having 99.99% purity and
it will be determined through the preliminary welding
test. But additional shielding gas such as helium can be
used to increase penetration and/or productivity.
Main welding of the ports consists of five steps such
as shell butt-welding, inner shell to reinforcement rib
welding, outer shell to reinforcement rib welding, inner
1967
shell to connection flange and outer shell to connection
flange as shown in Fig. 9.
The radiographic test (RT) shall be performed for
all the welding area except single butt welding area
of the outer shell applying ultrasonic test (UT). The
liquid penetration test (PT) may be accepted partially
in a water channel. The pressure test will be done using
a hydraulic or a pneumatic method.
The tolerance study has been performed based on
the experience in the fabrication of the KSTAR project
that the HHI did. All tolerances are in accordance with
the technical specification of the ITER. Some parts can
be changed to get more qualified fabrication through
proto-type port.
4. Conclusion
From the design analysis and the development of the
fabrication method, the upper and lower port designs
have been improved in compliance with the design
specification. The upper port flange based on the orig-
inal design, the modified design, the advanced concept
A, and the concept B are reviewed by the local struc-
tural analyses as well as the global analyses. In order to
assess the structural reliability for the lower RH port,
preliminary analysis has been carried out. The detailed
1968 H.J. Ahn et al. / Fusion Engineering and Design 82 (2007) 1960–1968
design has been conducted for the upper and the lower
ports of a vacuum vessel. The sequence and method
of the detailed fabrication for the ports is described.
The tolerance study for the port structures is also per-
formed to increase the design accuracy and to decrease
the manufacturing cost.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the ITER IT and NFRC
(National Fusion Research Center) under the ITER ITA
project contract.
References
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Eng. Design 75-79 (2005) 571–575.
[2] ITER internal document G15 DDD (Design Description Docu-
ment) Vacuum Vessel, September, 2004.
[3] Y.S. Hong, T.H. Kwon, H.J. Ahn, Y.K. Kim, C.D. Lee, Struc-
tural analysis for an upper port of the ITER vacuum vessel, 24th
Symposium on Fusion Technology, Warsaw, Poland, September
2006.
[4] S. Cho, D. Kim, S.I. Pak, H.J. Ahn, K.H. Park, Y.K. Kim, et al.,
AT Current status on ITER vacuum vessel design activities in
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