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Construction

The first completed building on the ITER platform was the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility. European Domestic Agency contractors will manufacture four of ITER's giant poloidal field coils in this building. (Click to view larger version...)
The first completed building on the ITER platform was the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility. European Domestic Agency contractors will manufacture four of ITER's giant poloidal field coils in this building.
The large red-topped manufacturing facility located on the east side of the construction platform will house the assembly of poloidal field coils, part of ITER's magnetic confinement system. Ranging in diameter from 8 to 24 metres at the end of the assembly process, four of the six poloidal field coils needed for ITER will be too large to be transported in their finished state. For these coils, suppliers will deliver niobium-titanium conductor to the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility for on-site winding and assembly operations under the responsibility of the European Domestic Agency.

The Winding Facility accommodates docking stations for the unloading and temporary placement of the superconducting coils, production zones corresponding to the successive steps of the winding and assembly process, and offices. Two overhead travelling cranes will work from opposite ends of the building to manipulate and transport the heavy loads and a third heavy-lift gantry crane will be installed for the final assembly stages.

The building's metal cladding—five layers of metal sheeting and insulation—isolates the poloidal field coil work space, where cleanliness is a priority, from the dust of the platform.

Construction of this concrete and steel structure began in August, 2010 and was completed in December 2011, with handover from the builders to the European Domestic Agency in February 2012.

Following the selection of a number of contractors, the European Domestic Agency has equipped the manufacturing facility with tooling in order to carry out qualification and production operations.

After the completion of the qualification phase, the series production of double pancakes (flat, spiralled coils that are stacked in layers to form the coil winding packs) got off to a start. The complete process, from winding to finished coil, will take approximately two years per coil.

Manufacturing activities are underway now; for more information visit this page.

Building facts:

  • Construction period: August 2010 - December 2011
  • Surface area: 12,000m²
  • Dimensions: 257 metres long, 49 metres wide, 18 metres tall
  • Floor slab: 40 cm thick, designed to withstand 42 tonnes/m²
  • Total steel cladding: 12,000 m²
  • Total roofing: 11,000 m²
  • Lifting capacity of first bridge crane: 25 tonnes. Capacity of second bridge crane: 50 tonnes under the spreader beam, or 100 tonnes.
  • Capacity of gantry crane: 400 tonnes
  • Beginning of qualification activities: 2016
  • Beginning of winding activities: April 2017