Site Services Building
All equipment installed
27 May 2019
Standing alongside the Assembly Hall, the Site Services Building is not the most spectacular edifice on the ITER platform. It is however one of the most strategic, as it hosts the equipment that distributes a large number of industrial support services and systems that are indispensable for plant operation.
The 80-metre-long building is a rather standard structure, whose construction began back in January 2015 under the responsibility of the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy. What makes it unique is the density and variety of its equipment—demineralized water plant, chiller systems, air compressors, dozens of pumps and kilometres of pipes installed by contractors Demont and Cestaro Rossi under the supervision of the ITER Organization's Construction Management-as Agent contractor MOMENTUM in collaboration with the ITER construction team for plant installation (CTPI).
At a small celebration on Thursday 23 May, ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot stressed "the multiple roles that have been interwoven to bring this building and its systems to completion," and formulated his appreciation for "the successful collaboration between all stakeholders with energy, enthusiasm and teamwork."
MOMENTUM will now shoulder the responsibility for maintaining these systems in full readiness—in collaboration with the CTPI team—until the ITER Organization is ready for full system commissioning.
Adding to the symbolic importance of the event, the members of the Management Advisory Committee, who happened to be convening at ITER Headquarters, took a break from their discussions to attend the ceremony on site.