ITER NEWSLINE
-
1,300 get a real sense of ITER
1,300 get a real sense of ITER
Saturday 17 May was Open Doors Day on the ITER site. Nearly 1,300 visitors—members of the public as well as the families of ITER employees and contractors—took part in the event, the fourth organized by ITER Communication since 2011.
Construction specialists were on hand near the Tokamak Complex Seismic Pit to explain the system of seismic isolation already in place and the requirements of the foundation slab that—once completed this year—will be ready to support nearly 400,000 tonnes of building and equipment.
From 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., regular rotations of shuttle buses conveyed visitors from the public parking lot to the ITER construction platform. While certain chose to start their visit by a guided tour of the work site, others walked at their leisure to the ITER Visitor Centre, where mockups of the machine and the construction site—as well as videos on construction, fusion, or the assembly of the machine—were all starting points for understanding the goals of the ITER Project. Guides were on hand all day to answer questions.
The shuttle buses left visitors off at the worksite canteen, situated on the ITER platform. From there, they could board buses for a guided tour of the worksite, or get an overview of the project at the ITER Visitors Centre.
The bus tour of the construction site—organized in collaboration with the European agency in charge of all works on site, Fusion for Energy—made two stops. At the first, visitors entered the 257-metre-long Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility, where four of the six ITER poloidal field coils will be manufactured. At the second, they were taken as close as possible to the work progressing on the foundations of the Tokamak Complex where explanations on the seismic foundations of the Complex (no longer visible) and the requirements of the foundation slab that will be supporting nearly 400,000 tons of building and equipment were given.
Curiosity about ITER remains strong and—as the construction of 16 new structures gets underway—the 42-hectare platform is evolving monthly. A second Open Doors Day event is planned for October 2014.
Click here to view more images of the May 2014 Open Doors Day.
return to the latest published articles
