Coordinating the invisible work that will make ITER function
As work progresses on core machine assembly in the tokamak pit, a parallel effort led by the Plant Installation Coordination Project is ensuring that the surrounding plant systems are installed without clashes or delays.
Inside the central theatre where machine assembly is underway, major ITER components are arriving by overhead crane with increasing frequency. But outside the boundary of those concrete walls an equally critical effort is unfolding—without which the reactor could never operate. That responsibility falls to the Plant Installation Coordination Project, led by Claudio La Barbera, who since this month has also taken on coordination of machine assembly, giving him oversight of the full construction site.
La Barbera describes the distinction with a simple image. If the reactor is a city such as Aix-en-Provence (just 40 km from ITER), then the plant is the region of Provence. The “plant” includes all the auxiliary systems, buildings and infrastructure surrounding the machine—cooling systems, power distribution, ventilation and a dense web of interconnected services. “If the plant systems are not installed,” he explains, “the reactor will not work.”
The scale of this work is vast, and its complexity increases as construction advances. Dozens of systems must be installed in confined spaces, often crossing or overlapping one another. What appears as a single line on a high-level project schedule typically hides a series of interdependent subtasks. If the sequence is wrong, one activity can block another—or, in the worst case, force teams to dismantle and reinstall equipment. Anticipating and preventing those conflicts is at the heart of plant installation coordination.
As project leader, La Barbera manages an integrated team of around 25 people, combining ITER Organization staff and contractor personnel. His role is both strategic and hands-on. He distributes responsibilities, ensures the right skills are in place, prioritizes tasks and intervenes when conflicts cannot be resolved at lower levels, often reminding people that schedule pressure can never override safety.
At peak activity, more than 500 workers are active across the areas that La Barbera’s team oversees. Each zone is mapped and assigned to a dedicated coordination lead, creating a clear reference point for contractors working in that space. Daily and weekly coordination meetings allow teams to track progress, resolve issues and ensure contractors have the services they need—from scaffolding and power to access routes and logistics support.
Teams use a structured planning process to break down long-term installation goals into smaller tasks. Using the master schedule as a starting point, workplace planners analyze sequences in the 3D model and develop detailed work-phase plans. These plans look three weeks ahead for short-term coordination and up to six months ahead for medium-term anticipation. The outputs then guide daily area preparation, task allocation and contractor coordination.
Digital tools play a central role. Primavera provides schedule visibility, while 3D models are accessed through platforms such as Catia and Navisworks. For more advanced analysis, the team uses 4D simulation tools that combine the 3D model with time. These assessments allow planners to visualize how the site evolves, simulate equipment handling paths and detect spatial clashes before work begins.
For La Barbera, a typical day starts early. He arrives on site well before his first meeting at 7:30 a.m., using the quiet hours to handle documentation and planning. His calendar may include 60 to 70 meetings in a week, ranging from daily coordination briefings to contractor reviews and site visits. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in nuclear power plant construction, he emphasizes the importance of daily interaction with his team: “I prefer constant contact in order to listen, understand progress and address problems as early as possible.”
Perhaps the greatest challenge today is managing co-activity: multiple contractors installing different systems in the same area. When milestones are achieved, often after months of preparation, La Barbera takes particular pride in recognizing individual contributions. “A project leader without his team will never achieve results like this,” he says.
Unforeseen situations are also part of daily life on a construction project of this scale, requiring rapid decisions to keep work moving safely. “Recently, for example, the temporary cargo lift suddenly became unavailable just as we needed to handle the final piping bundle for the tokamak cooling water system at Level L3 of the Tokamak Complex. Almost in real time we checked whether a mobile crane was available on site, prepared a new lifting plan with the contractor, got it approved by the lifting team, and executed the lift through one of the temporary openings of the Tritium Building.”
Moments like this illustrate the essence of installation coordination at ITER: anticipating problems where possible, but also being ready to mobilize the right expertise quickly when the unexpected occurs.