Night shifts
5 Dec 2015
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R.A.
The ITER worksite hardly ever sleeps. When night falls and most employees leave the office to head home, another shift begins for construction workers and steel assembly specialists.
This first panorama takes in most of the 42-hectare, one-kilometre-long ITER platform. To the left, between the concrete batching plant and the towering structure of the Assembly Hall, the steel-framed Site Services Building awaits cladding and roofing. This 80 metre-long facility will accommodate and distribute a large number of industrial support services and systems that are indispensable for operating the ITER installation.
The 6:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. night shift is at work on the far side of the Assembly Hall, bolting together the steel lattice that will support the metal cladding. On the right side of the image, near the red-topped coil winding facility, a second team is busy installing steel reinforcement for the foundation of the ITER cryoplant.
Let's zoom in now on the lower levels of the Tokamak Complex, where the evening crew is at work until 10:00 p.m. A square of light is visible in the background—we're looking into the Cryostat Workshop which is open late, exceptionally, in order for workers to prepare for a scheduled inspection of the building's gantry crane. This annual exercise consists of lifting a 220-tonne charge (10 percent heavier than the nominal lifting capacity of the crane).