Main buildings
Under, over and beside the tokamak
17 Dec 2018
In the immediate vicinity of the machine—in the deep vaults of the Tokamak Complex or under the high rafters of the Assembly Building—construction teams are preparing for 2019 assembly-related activities. Whether it is receiving and handling the first major components or beginning to install the first structural supports for system components in the concrete buildings, the coming year will mark the transition on site between a heavy focus on construction, to the management of construction and machine and plant system assembly activities in parallel.
Now painted in white, the lowest basement level of the Diagnostic Building is ready for handover to contractors for the beginning of systems installation. Embedded plates—for the attachment of system supports—are visible on all surfaces.
Under the financial and oversight responsibility of the European Domestic Agency civil construction works on site are progressing, and are soon to pass the 70 percent completion mark.
As buildings are completed, the ITER Organization has the overall responsibility for the integration and assembly of components delivered to the ITER site by the seven Domestic Agencies. The actual work of the assembly phase will be carried out primarily by ITER Organization contractors (or, for some plant assembly works, by Domestic Agency contractors). Work will be tendered out in nine main contracts.
In the build-up to full-scale assembly, which begins with overhead crane access to the Tokamak Building in March 2020, components are arriving on site with increasing frequency. In 2019 a number of major arrivals are planned, including the first toroidal field coil, the first vacuum vessel sector, assembly tooling, and the first thermal shield segments. Installation activities will start in the lower levels of the Tokamak Complex while in the Assembly Hall, the first specialized assembly tools will be moving into action.
See more detail in the gallery below.
La topographie particulière de la dalle du Bâtiment d'assemblage, d'une superficie de 6 000 mètres carrés, nécessite 1 400 tonnes de ferraillage.
Les cinq bobines de champ poloïdal qui seront fabriquées dans l'Installation de bobinage (en rouge) n'auront que quelques dizaines de mètres à parcourir pour atteindre le Bâtiment d'assemblage. Photo : F4E
L'épaisseur de la dalle de fondation du Bâtiment d'assemblage varie de 1,2 à 2,2 mètres d'épaisseur. Les outils d'assemblage, particulièrement lourds et imposants, y seront arrimés. Photo : F4E
Sturdy wings
Precision hydraulics will drive the lateral wings of the SSAT tools, which rotate to deliver the toroidal field coils to their installation fixtures on the vacuum vessel sector. In order to support the weight of the massive components that will be suspended on its frame, each tool weighs an incredible 800 tonnes.
Le Complexe tokamak et le Bâtiment d'assemblage dessineront un « T » au milieu de la plateforme. Photo : F4E
Adjacent galleries
Outside of the bioshield, nine-metre galleries called port cells will accommodate heating pipes, electricity cables, diagnostic lines and maintenance systems as they pass through to the vacuum vessel from outlying chambers. Parked momentarily in this gallery is the tool for mounting heavy port cell doors on the far end of the galleries.
Septembre 2012 : devant le tout nouveau siège d'ITER, à l'arrière-plan, les travaux sont en cours sur le chantier du Bâtiment d'Assemblage (au centre).
La fosse du tokamak se dore au Soleil : en 2013 le radier supérieur (le « plancher » du Complexe tokamak) viendra recouvrir les fondations antisismiques.
Les travaux de l'antichambre du Bâtiment tokamak avancent. Le Bâtiment d'assemblage sera équipé de deux ponts roulants avec une capacité de charge combinée de 1 500 tonnes.