Subscribe options

Select your newsletters:

Please enter your email address:

@

Your email address will only be used for the purpose of sending you the ITER Organization publication(s) that you have requested. ITER Organization will not transfer your email address or other personal data to any other party or use it for commercial purposes.

If you change your mind, you can easily unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe option at the bottom of an email you've received from ITER Organization.

For more information, see our Privacy policy.

News & Media

Latest ITER Newsline

  • On site | 28 who "truly shined"

    The new ITER Star Awards recognize exemplary performance and commitment. Every year, during the annual assessment campaign, ITER staff may be recognized for exe [...]

    Read more

  • MT-28 Conference | Superconducting magnets as a catalyst

    Many passers-by paused for a moment and picked up their cell phones to capture the scene. It was indeed rare to see dancers on the square outside of the Pavillo [...]

    Read more

  • Fusion world | TCV tokamak turns 30

    The Swiss TCV tokamak (for Tokamak à Configuration Variable, or 'variable configuration' tokamak) has been exploring the physics of nuclear fusion for 30 years [...]

    Read more

  • Image of the week | Port cell with a view

    A visit to ITER would not be complete without a peek into the Tokamak pit where the machine is being progressively assembled. For several years, one of the equa [...]

    Read more

  • Visit | Chinese Minister reaffirms "full support"

    ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi and the Chinese Minister of Science and Technology (MOST) Wang Zhigang share a common academic background. They both tra [...]

    Read more

Of Interest

See archived entries

Action!

A power shovel removes the first of some 230,000 cubic metres from the Tokamak Pit. (Click to view larger version...)
A power shovel removes the first of some 230,000 cubic metres from the Tokamak Pit.
The first days of August in southern France are usually very quiet. This is the heart of the summer holiday season; half the shops and businesses are closed and every serious decision has to be postponed until la rentrée, the first weeks of September when life finally gets back to normal.

On a small, 42 hectare-wide area of southern France, however, the first week of August was marked by renewed activity.

Bulldozers, scrapers and power shovels were back on the ITER platform: under the responsibility of the European Domestic Agency F4E, work began in the Tokamak Pit and on the 14,000-square-metre area that will host the huge Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility.

On Wednesday 4 August , after some preparatory works had been done during the previous week, a lone power shovel began removing the top soil from the Tokamak Pit—the first of some 230,000 cubic metres that will have to be extracted  in order to make room for the installation.

Operations and safety on the ITER platform are being carefully coordinated by the ENGAGE Consortium and the French company APAVE. (Click to view larger version...)
Operations and safety on the ITER platform are being carefully coordinated by the ENGAGE Consortium and the French company APAVE.
In a little more than three weeks, blasting specialists will move in for two months. Explosives will be used to blast some of the rock layer at an average rate of 4,000 cubic metres per day.

Some 250 metres away, bulldozers and scrapers were busy levelling the poloidal field coils assembly area and preparing a smooth "sub-base" on top of which a 30- to 40 centimetre-thick concrete floor slab will be poured in about a month.

Operations on the ITER platform are being carefully coordinated under the authority of the ENGAGE Consortium and, as far as Health & Safety are concerned, by the French company APAVE.

Bulldozers and scrapers are busy levelling the 14,000-square-metre area that will host the huge Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility. (Click to view larger version...)
Bulldozers and scrapers are busy levelling the 14,000-square-metre area that will host the huge Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility.
Coordination will be crucial starting at the end of the month, when rock will be blasted here and concrete poured there .... It has been decided that blasting will be performed during lunch break and concrete poured in the afternoon, then left to harden during the night.

"This is the first actual work en route to First Plasma," says Ben Slee, Deputy Head of Site Building and Power Supplies at F4E. "It is essential to keep the schedule ...."

While actual work on the future ITER Headquarters and related buildings will only start in September, preliminary earthworks have been ongoing for a couple of days below the northeast corner of the platform.

Agence Iter France, who is responsible for construction, expects to deliver the buildings (co-financed by France and F4E) by mid-2012.


return to the latest published articles