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News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • Tokamak assembly | Extra support from below

    Underneath the concrete slab that supports the Tokamak Complex is a vast, dimly lit space whose only features are squat, pillar-like structures called 'plinths. [...]

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  • Vacuum standards and quality | Spreading the word

    As part of a continuing commitment to improve quality culture both at the ITER Organization and at the Domestic Agencies, the Vacuum Delivery & Installation [...]

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  • 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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  • ITER Robots | No two alike

    More than 500 students took part in the latest ITER Robots challenge. Working from the same instructions and technical specifications, they had worked in teams [...]

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  • Data archiving | Operating in quasi real time

    To accommodate the first real-time system integrated with the ITER control system, new components of the data archiving system have been deployed. Data archivi [...]

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Of Interest

See archived entries

ITER NEWSLINE -

Night shifts

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.

(Click to view larger version...)
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.

(Click to view larger version...)
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.

(Click to view larger version...)
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).

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