Civil engineering officially complete

In late 2012, the European Domestic Agency signed a major contract (TB03) for the design and construction of 11 ITER buildings. The VFR consortium (Vinci, Ferrovial, Razel-Bec) would be responsible for building the main Tokamak Complex, the Assembly Hall, the Cleaning Facility, the Control Building, and the Radiofrequency Building, as well as a set of smaller auxiliary structures.

Ten years and 7,000,000 work hours later, many of the buildings in TB03 scope have been completed and turned over to the ITER Organization for the installation of plant equipment. The central Tokamak Complex—the most demanding project, requiring 100,000 m³ of concrete and approximately 30,000 tonnes of steel reinforcement to complete its three buildings (Tokamak, Tritium and Diagostics)—is being delivered in phases.

Since the contract kickoff meeting in 2013, the floors and walls of the impressive seven-storey structure have progressively taken shape. (You can follow progress over the years in this ITER construction gallery.)

As part of Tokamak Building construction, the team built a cylindrical concrete bioshield—a "ring fortress" that completely surrounds the ITER Tokamak to protect workers and the environment from the radiation generated by fusion reactions. After its completion in 2018 it took approximately one year for the VFR consortium to finish the remainder of the building's concrete structure. The consortium and its subcontractors also installed 249 nuclear doors, including the heavy doors that seal off ITER port cells. Fusion for Energy estimates that 900 people were involved over ten years in the execution of the contract.

Following the control of the instrumentation of all doors, and other verification, the papers certifying the official completion of the civil engineering works in the Tokamak Building were issued.

See the Fusion for Energy website for a full report.