The definition phase for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) has been nearly completed, thus beginning a three-year design effort by teams from the European Community (EC), Japan, US, and USSR. Preliminary parameters for the superconducting magnet system have been established to guide more detailed design work. Radiation tolerance of the superconductors and insulators has been important because it sets requirements for the neutron-shield dimension and sensitively influences reactor size. Major levels of mechanical stress appear in the structural cases of the inboard legs of the toroidal-field (TF) coils. The winding packs of the TF coils include significant fractions of steel that provide support against in-plane separating loads, but they offer little support against out-of-plane loads unless shear-bonding of the conductors can be maintained. Heat removal from nuclear and ac loads has not limited the fundamental design, but it has nonnegligible economic consequences. 3 refs., 3 figs., 5 tabs.