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Latest ITER Newsline
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FEC2020 | Seeking sponsors for 28th IAEA Fusion Energy Conference
For only the third time since 1961, the International Atomic Energy Agency's Fusion Energy Conference will be taking place in France—hosted jointly by the Frenc [...]
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Nuclear safety | Under constant scrutiny
Because one of the elements involved in the fusion reaction is the radioactive isotope tritium, and because the hydrogen fusion reaction itself generates a high [...]
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Power conversion | Alien structures and strange contraptions
There are places in ITER that seem to belong to another world, places full of alien structures and strange contraptions. The feeling—a mixture of awe and puzzle [...]
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Tokamak Complex | A changing landscape
For the past three years, the view from the top of the highest worksite crane has not changed much. Inside of the Tokamak Complex, 80 metres below, concrete gal [...]
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Ion cyclotron heating | How to pump 20 MW of power into 1 gram of plasma
To power the ion cyclotron system, the ITER Organization and its partners are designing not only new antennas, which will be housed in the tokamak vessel, but a [...]
ITER NEWSLINE -
Main buildingsUnder, over and beside the Tokamak
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.
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.
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