Early on Tuesday, 30 April the usual hustle and bustle on the fifth floor of the ITER Headquarters came to a short halt as ITER management gathered in front of a video camera to participate remotely in an event taking place at the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy (
F4E) in Barcelona. An event marking another milestone in the project's history book: the kick-off meeting for Tender Batch 03, which is project code for the contract covering the construction of the Tokamak Complex plus another eight support buildings.
The Tokamak Complex will be a seven-storey reinforced concrete building with a steel-frame crane hall and a total mass of around 335,000 tonnes. It comprises the Tokamak Building plus the adjacent Diagnostic and Tritium buildings. All three are connected and supported by a common basemat.
In addition to the Tokamak Complex, another eight buildings will be erected within the frame of the TB03 contract over the next 66 months, as well as 60 nuclear doors that will provide containment and radiation shielding during ITER operation and maintenance and three bridges. The scope of work comprises all civil works, heavy doors supply and implementation and finishing works.