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Open Doors Day

Sharing ITER with 1,000 visitors

23 Sep 2019
Rain notwithstanding, the 15th edition of the ITER Open Doors Day was a success, with close to one thousand people attending. Fifty volunteer guides from the ITER Organization, the European Domestic Agency, and all of the major worksite contractors were present, each one ready to share ITER from his or her unique perspective.
JPO_09-19_selfie_small.jpg
A sunny smile for a rainy day... On Saturday, for the 15th time since October 2011, ITER opened its doors wide and welcomed close to 1,000 visitors.

At the ground level (L1), the Diagnostics Building is now painted from floor to ceiling. Visitors were brought in small groups through the labyrinth of the Tokamak Complex that was exceptionally cleared of all activity for safety reasons. (Guide: Florent Papineschi from Fusion for Energy)
Visitors learned that 65% of project execution to First Plasma has been carried out—including the realization of the Tokamak Pit, where machine assembly will kick off next year. Once a roof has been installed over the Tokamak Building, the temporary cap visible at the top of this photo will be removed and components introduced from above. (Guides: Damien Sorbier from Engage and Pierre-Jean Gonnet from Energhia)
Load tests on the first vacuum vessel sector sub-assembly tool (SSAT1) are ending and the two 360-tonne loads will soon be transferred to the second. For ITER guests on Saturday 21 September, the sheer scale of the tools made the size of the ITER machine suddenly appreciable.
The first heavy lift of the machine assembly phase is ready. Patrick Petit, who leads ITER's In-Cryostat Assembly Section, explains how the cryostat base was manufactured under ITER India oversight, how it will be transported to the Assembly Hall, and what further activities are underway in the Cryostat Workshop.
Two reporters from the French YouTube channel "Grand Angle" covered every aspect of the event.
A truck full of tricks
Founded 33 years ago, "Les petits débrouillards" ("The Resourseful Kids") is a national network in France that promotes scientific and technical education. One of its trucks full of tricks was parked near the ITER Visitors Centre to offer hands-on experiments on magnetism and electricity.
In the Visitors Centre, ITER guides Jarl Buskop (Assembly Engineer) and Pierre Bauer (Superconductor Engineer) use the machine mockup, and video, to explain how fusion plasmas will be created, and maintained, in the ITER Tokamak.
Tokamak integration specialist Benoit Manfreo spent the day on Saturday using a virtual reality tool to show how ITER engineers have planned for the clash-free integration of more than one million components into the Tokamak Complex.
Videos in English and French could be played, replayed and shared in order to understand the challenge—and ambition—of the world's largest international collaboration in science.
Shrinking and expanding marshmallows, glowing tubes, bell jar lids that are impossible to lift ... Gregory de Temmerman, from the ITER Science Division, uses all of these "tricks" to explain plasma, vacuum and other scientific concepts important to fusion.
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