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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Test facility | How do electronics react to magnetic fields?

    A tokamak is basically a magnetic cage designed to confine, shape and control the super-hot plasmas that make fusion reactions possible. Inside the ITER Tokamak [...]

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  • Image of the week | There is life on Planet ITER

    Dated April 2023, this new image of the ITER "planet" places the construction site squarely in the middle. One kilometre long, 400 metres wide, the IT [...]

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Of Interest

See archived entries

A jewel in its concrete box

Deep into the ITER servers lays the huge data bank, constantly updated, that forms the 3D blueprint of the whole installation. Digging into this "detailed model", one can create ultra-precise renditions of any part of the machine, systems or buildings — down to the smallest pipe, nut and bolt.

Not everybody, however, needs such a high level of details. A designer working on, say, in-wall shielding or assembly tooling, needs to have a clear picture of the environment his components will fit in — but not necessarily with the resolution the "detailed model" can provide.

The ''simplified models'' that Lauris Honoré creates from the huge ITER data bank are terrific pedagogical and communication tools, revealing what the installation is really like, in all its beauty and complexity. (Click to view larger version...)
The ''simplified models'' that Lauris Honoré creates from the huge ITER data bank are terrific pedagogical and communication tools, revealing what the installation is really like, in all its beauty and complexity.
What he needs is 3D data that is sufficiently detailed but light enough to be handled by his workstation. What he needs is something simplified. And Lauris Honoré, a young designer who's been with ITER for six years already, is here to provide it.

Simplified models have a value that reaches well beyond the technical needs of ITER. They are terrific pedagogical and communication tools, revealing what the installation is really like, in all its beauty and complexity.

Lauris has developed a talent for these spectacular, colourful renditions. "I add texture, colours, brilliance, put a little man here and there to give a sense of scale... the drawing must be both technically impeccable and visually pleasing."

The Tokamak Complex rendition that we publish today (a much reduced version of the original) is a perfect illustration of this approach: here's the heart of the installation, densely packed with systems and devices — a fabulous machine and encased in concrete like a jewel in its box.


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