Design progress of the vacuum vessel sectors and ports towards the ITER construction

Recent progress of the ITER vacuum vessel (VV) design is presented. As the ITER construction phase approaches, the VV design has been improved and developed in more detail with the focus on better performance, improved manufacture and reduced cost. Based on the achievements of manufacturing studies being performed in cooperation with the ITER participant teams (PTs), design improvement of the typical VV sector (#1, see the legend to figure 1 in this article) has been nearly finalized. Design improvement of other sectors is in progress—in particular, of the VV sectors #2 and #3 which interface with tangential ports for the neutral beam (NB) injection. For all sectors, the concept for the in-wall shielding has progressed and developed in more detail. The design progress of the VV sectors has been accompanied by the progress of the port structures. Structural analyses have been performed to validate all design improvements.