The VIP door

Although adjacent and complementary to each other, the Tokamak Building and the Assembly Hall feel like two separate worlds: one is a labyrinth of hard concrete and raw steel, the other a vast open volume, home to shining new handling machines.

 

Facing opposite directions, their respective entrances are hundreds of metres apart and passing from one to the other requires a long detour through the main thoroughfares of the ITER construction site. Or rather, required...

 

A few weeks ago, a door was opened up in the temporary facade that separates the two buildings. The first person to pass through it was the Princess of Thailand when she visited ITER at the end of last year.

 

For the moment, the door's main purpose is to facilitate VIP visits; soon it will be enlarged and connected to a corridor that will allow assembly workers to commute between the Assembly Hall and the Tokamak Pit.