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News & Media

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  • Fusion world | Japan and Europe inaugurate largest tokamak in the world

    It was 6:00 a.m. in La Bergerie, a former sheep barn located a few kilometres from ITER in the vast Château de Cadarache domain, and that had been converted [...]

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  • Stakeholders | ITER Director-General meets Prime Minister Kishida

    In Japan, the prime minister lives and works at the Prime Minister's Official Residence in central Tokyo, just a few blocks from the National Diet Building and [...]

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  • Image of the week | Season wrapping

    Although the travel distance is short, barely exceeding one hundred metres, the transfer of vacuum vessel sector #8 from the Assembly Hall, where it is presentl [...]

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  • In memoriam | Bernard Pégourié, physicist and mountaineer

    The worldwide fusion community mourns Bernard Pégourié, of France's Institute for Magnetic Fusion Research (CEA-IRFM), who passed away on 25 November following [...]

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  • COP28 | Fusion is making a splash

    The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, opened on 30 November in Dubai's Expo City—a sprawling conference centre built two years ago for the W [...]

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Of Interest

See archived entries

A feeling of awe and anticipation

As dusk settles on the ITER worksite, the second shift is only half way through its workday. Lights turn on, illuminating a spectacular scene teeming with activity.

Lights turn on, illuminating a spectacular scene teeming with activity ... (Click to view larger version...)
Lights turn on, illuminating a spectacular scene teeming with activity ...
To the right of the image, the view takes in the red-trimmed Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility where fabrication is ongoing for the mockup of poloidal field coil #5. Standing parallel to this large industrial facility, the cryoplant's foundation and supporting columns are now finalized and the first elements of its steel structure are in place.

To the center left, the Assembly Hall has acquired a towering presence—something akin to the Kaaba in Mecca. In the harsh worksite lights, every detail of the ongoing works in the Tokamak Complex stands out: the almost completed L1 level of the Diagnostics Building to the right; the blue tarp covering the most recent concrete pours in the Tokamak Building at the centre and the thousands of embedded plates, formwork structures and penetrations in the Tritium Building to the left.

Turning to the north now, and to the snow-capped mountains catching the last of the sun's rays ... (Click to view larger version...)
Turning to the north now, and to the snow-capped mountains catching the last of the sun's rays ...
Turning to the north now, and to the snow-capped mountains catching the last of the sun's rays—a different, unusual vision of the ITER site: to the left, lights are on in the offices of ITER Organization Headquarters as they are now in the villages in the distance.

And here is the Holy of Holies ... (Click to view larger version...)
And here is the Holy of Holies ...
And here is the Holy of Holies—the circular fortress that will enclose the ITER Tokamak and its 3.2-metre-thick rampart, the bioshield. The structure, made of super-heavy concrete, is designed to protect both men and the environment from the radiation stemming from the fusion reactions inside the machine.
In some areas of the L1 level, concrete is already settling and drying; in others, formwork and reinforcement is in place for the upcoming pours.

There's a striking beauty in the ITER site at night—something that fills with awe and anticipation.


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