The contract for the first building to be constructed on the ITER site, the winding facility for the Poloidal Field Coils, was signed on 13 January at the ITER site in Cadarache, France. The contract was signed by Didier Gambier on behalf of Fusion for Energy, and Francois-Xavier Clédat, president of the French company Spie batignolles on behalf of the consortium comprising Spie batignolles, Omega Concept and Setec. Kaname Ikeda, Director General of ITER, as well as several French mayors and state representatives attended the event.
The signing of this contract marks the beginning of the ITER construction which in total will comprise the erection of 39 buildings on site.
The PF coil building is unique in the sense that it will house one of ITER’s biggest components, the coils for the Poloidal Field (PF) magnets made out of niobium-titanium (Nb-Ti), which will be wound there. The building of this facility on site is necessary as the PF coils measure 24 metres in diameter and are simply too big to be transported and delivered to the ITER site like the majority of other components that are fabricated by industries in the ITER member states. Construction of the coil winding building is expected to start this summer.
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