How will the ITER construction site evolve in 2015?

Last year we celebrated the completion of the Tokamak complex slab, the floor upon which the biggest fusion machine in the world will rely on. It was a big milestone that represented an investment of around 100 million EUR for F4E. The floor will be able to support more than 400,000 tonnes of buildings infrastructure and equipment, including the ITER machine weighing 23,000 tonnes. The design of most of the buildings has been completed together with the execution drawings of the Tokamak complex.

Laurent Schmieder, F4E’s Project Manager for Site, Buildings and Power Supplies (SBPS), explains that this year multiple construction activities are expected to unfold in parallel. Apart from the ongoing works at the Tokamak complex, we will witness the progress of the Assembly Hall building and the surrounding buildings. For Romaric Darbour, F4E’s Deputy Project Manager for SBPS, “2015 is the year of construction”. The works for ten new buildings and facilities will kick off such as the cryoplant; magnet power conversion; radio frequency heating; cooling towers; cleaning facilities and the control building. The construction of the second floor of the Tokamak building is also expected to begin this summer.

David Knoyle, Senior Engineer of Atkins and member of the Engage consortium, elaborates on the works of the bioshield walls, where some heavy embedments will be cast in, and the completion of the Tokamak complex walls by the end of this year. Frederic Sciblo, Project Manager of the Vinci Ferrovial Razel consortium, welcomes us to the Assembly Hall building, which once completed will be 100 metres long, 60 metres high and 60 metres wide. Currently, 82 columns have been installed. On the east façade, the fourth out of the five levels has started to be erected at 48 meters and on the west façade, the second level has been erected. The completion of the main steel structure is planned for this autumn.