Winding facility contract signed

Six stories high ... two soccer fields in length ... the building's sheer size is impressive. And size matters, as this is the building that will house the workshop for one of ITER's biggest components. It is also the first building that will go up on the ITER platform. So undoubtedly, the spotlight this week at ITER was the coil winding facility for the poloidal field magnets.

On Wednesday, 13 January, Didier Gambier on behalf of the European Domestic Agency and Francois-Xavier Clédat, President of the French consortium comprising Spie Batignolles, Omega Concept and Setec, signed the contract that heralded the beginning of ITER construction.

The Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility will be 253 metres long, 46 metres wide and 19 metres high*. On the inside of the building, the coils for ITER's poloidal field magnets will be wound. There will be six polodal field coils in all, ranging in diameter from 8 to 24 metres.

Whereas most of the components for ITER will be built by industry in the Member states, five of the six poloidal field coils are simply too big for transport and will be delivered by Europe to be wound on site.

Construction of the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility is expected to start in the summer of 2010. It will be the first of 39 buildings to be erected on the ITER platform in the coming years.

* In the video is says that the building will be 17 metres high, but updated figures give a height of 19 metres.