On site
Drone survey on a perfect day
18 Feb 2019
There are days in winter when the skies over Provence are perfectly transparent. Snowy peaks 200 kilometres away appear close enough to be touched and farms, country roads and villages are all revealed in sharp detail.
The ITER site, filmed by drone in early February. Seventy-four percent of building construction on the platform has been completed. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
A drone flying over the ITER site on such days captures every single iron bar, scaffolding tower, or embedded plate in the Tokamak Complex; every insulator in the electrical switchyard; and every component carefully wrapped in green plastic in the site's storage areas.
This new harvest of images from early February also reveals the broader setting of the ITER Project, among the rolling hills and plowed fields along the Durance River valley—a futuristic enclave in an unchanging environment.
Disappearing bioshield
The concrete bioshield is disappearing behind the rising walls of the Tokamak Building; soon there will be nothing left to see. The ITER cameras will have to move inside of the buildings to follow the painting works that are being carried out from bottom to top, as well as early assembly works. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
A futuristic enclave
Nested amidst rolling hills and plowed fields along the Durance River valley, ITER is a futuristic enclave in an unchanging environment.To the south, the Mediterranean is less than 70 kilometres distant. To the north, the Massif des Ecrins, culminating at 4,000 metres, is a mere two-and-a-half-hour drive.
74% of First Plasma construction work completed
On the ITER site in southern France, 1,900 workers in three shifts are contributing to realizing the buildings and facilities needed for ITER's First Plasma. Components arriving in ever increasing numbers are stored either on site or in dedicated off-site facilities. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
The four walls of the Tokamak Building
Contractors are working on level 5 (L5) of the Tokamak Building—the last of seven levels in concrete. Over this, European contractors will install a steel structure that protects the assembly cranes and brings the Tokamak Building up to match the height of the Assembly Hall. We will see the first signs of this "crane hall" later this year. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
The central well
The first machine component—a segment of magnet feeder—was introduced through the opening on the left last November. Full-scale assembly will begin in March 2020 when the roof of the Tokamak Building is in place, the temporary bioshield lid is removed, and the crane rails have been extended over the 30-metre-deep machine "well." Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
Plant system row
Looking toward the Tokamak Complex (concrete) and the Assembly Hall (reflective steel), three auxiliary buildings are all in a row: two low buildings for the conversion of power for the ITER magnet systems, and the cryoplant, alongside which a number of tanks have been installed for the storage of liquid and gaseous helium and nitrogen. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
Construction AND manufacturing
Along the right side of the platform are two on-site manufacturing facilities where some of ITER's largest components are in fabrication: the ring-shaped poloidal field magnets (facility trimmed in red) and the ITER cryostat (large grey workshop, top right). The doors of the Cryostat Workshop will open soon to reveal the first completed cryostat section—the lower cylinder. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
Unseen arteries
Power arrives at the southern end of the ITER platform from the 400 kV French national grid. The voltage is stepped down through transformers and then switched through a set of busbars into cables that distribute it around the site to transformers supplying each building or system. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
ITER is sited on a 180-hectare parcel about 75 km north of Marseille. The principal buildings of the scientific installation are located on a level, 42-hectare platform on which it is increasingly difficult to find an empty parcel. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche