| An update on ITER construction |
<< return to Newsline #107
News |
JWS 3, which should be completed in June 2010, will be home to 200 staff from F4E and 100 staff from ITER.
The Final Functional Requirements consist of System Requirements Documents, System Description Documents and Interface Control Documents as well as the Detailed and Configuration Models for the Buildings. In all, more than 350 documents are now being made available to F4E and their contractors.
Once the Architect Engineering contract is in place, F4E will be able to move forward with the detailed design of all the buildings and site infrastructure. Tenders are currently being analyzed, and it is hoped that this can be completed quickly in order for the selected company to begin work early in 2010.
The first building to be completed on site will be the winding facility for ITER's Poloidal Field coils. The Procurement Arrangement for this building was signed with F4E in November 2008, and construction is planned to start mid-2010. Excavation of the tokamak pit is also planned to begin around this same date, if the excavation procurement process is completed on schedule in early 2010.
Adjacent to the Main Platform, the Annex Buildings - including the future ITER offices - are in the process of being rationalized with French and European commitments being merged together to ensure ITER minimum requirements are met. The Welcome and Communication services that were originally planned as independent buildings will be incorporated into the Main Office Building, allowing closer integration of the overall ITER team. The tendering process for the Annex Buildings has been launched and it is expected that the two-year construction works will commence in the middle of 2010 — good news for us all!
Visible progress is being made just outside of Headquarters as the preparatory works for the twin temporary office building JWS 3 move ahead. This building will be home to 200 staff from F4E and 100 staff from ITER. It is expected that the building will be completed in June 2010.
Whilst the period of low visible activity on the ITER construction site is likely to continue through the initial months in 2010, it is anticipated that if F4E can maintain the momentum of their current procurement activities, then by the middle of next year, building works will have begun in earnest. From this point forward, building will be a daily physical reminder of the progress being made on the ITER project.
<< return to Newsline #107