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FR

A wide angle on progress

17 Apr 2017

Whether captured from the top of a crane or from a drone hovering at an altitude of a few dozen metres, the ITER site is always spectacular.

From_Crane_5_Nicolas_10_small.jpg
Workers are preparing to pour the last segments of the Tokamak Building L1 slab ... laying rebar, positioning anchor plates, setting up scaffolding. Visitors to ITER's Open Doors Day in May will be able to walk out over the finished concrete (L1 is the equivalent of ground level).

After almost seven years of construction most of the elements of the ITER scientific installation are visible, albeit in various stages of completion.

Progress has been strong in the centre of the Tokamak Complex, where the bioshield now rises two storeys above the level of the platform and has become one of the most noticeable features of the worksite from overhead. Construction progress is also evident in the zones reserved for the ITER cryoplant and the cooling towers/basins.

Other milestones have been achieved that aren't so visible from the sky, however. On 30 March, one of the four transformers for steady-state electrical network was briefly connected to the French grid—opening the way for full switchyard "energization" in the coming months.

And that's not all: inside the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility teams are about to start on the first production winding for poloidal field coil #5; in the Radio Frequency Building 80 percent of the steel structure of has been installed and the intermediate floor slabs realized; and in the magnet power conversion area the first "top beam" was installed on columns last week.

But better see it with your own eyes in the photo gallery below ...

Once the Tokamak Building rises to meet the Assembly Hall, the temporary wall between the two will be removed to create an open space of nearly 200 metres in length. In the centre of it all is the concrete "well" where the machine will be assembled from bottom to top.
Turning away from the Tokamak Complex worksite to the northeast, contractor staging zones are visible and—in the background—the V-shaped ITER Headquarters building. A bridge is already in place to connect Headquarters to the Control Building where, in the future, operators will manage daily operational campaigns.
Each zone of the southern part of the platform is reserved for a specific building project or technical area—underground drainage works, electrical infrastructure (far end), cryoplant (partially clad at left), magnet power conversion (centre). The Diagnostics Building is just visible at the foot of the crane.
The full kilometre-long ITER platform is captured by drone in April. In the triangle seen in the lower left of the photo, a new storage area is planned. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
The European Domestic Agency is concentrating resources on the highly technical ITER bioshield (centre circle) in order to respect key schedule milestones; three hundred people are currently working on this zone in two shifts. The Tokamak Complex is nevertheless rising all around the bioshield—note in particular the Diagnostics Building (at right) where half of the L2 level slab is already in place.
At the entrance to the ITER site (top left) a yellow warehouse stands ready to receive component deliveries. The zone on the platform reserved for the Control Building (top, left of the crane) is used for the moment to store construction materials; at centre right the cooling tower and cooling basin area represents a small square. All of the concrete needed for ITER construction is produced in the double batching plant located on site (top right).
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