"You are ITER!"

25 Jan 2016 - R.A.

"ITER has acquired a concrete and spectacular reality," said Bernard Bigot in his all-staff address on 21 January 2016. "This building is ITER. These steel parts are ITER. Most important of all—you are ITER!"

The last time the ITER staff was assembled on the worksite was September 2011, a little more than one year after construction began in earnest. At that time, only one building stood on the platform—the near-finished Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility.

Four years and a few months later work is underway on the second underground level of the Tokamak Complex; the Assembly Hall rises 60 metres above platform level; the Cryoplant, Cleaning Facility, Site Services, Cooling Systems and Control buildings are all at various stages of preparation; and large machine components are already stored in the Cryostat Workshop, ready to be assembled and welded.

The gathering of ITER staff on-site was long overdue. The month of January and its traditional New Year's wishes, and the presence in the vast hall of the Cryostat Workshop of large pieces of steel from the cryostat base, provided the opportunity.

"Look how massive they are—and consider they represent only one-eighth of the total mass of the 3,850-tonne ITER cryostat," said ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot in his address. "Indeed, we are building a big machine..."

There was awe, and there was pride at this vision.

There was awe and pride at the vision of the large pieces of steel for the cyostat base stored in the Cryostat Workshop.

ITER had come a long way since the Geneva Summit 30 years ago. "It has acquired a concrete and spectacular reality," added Bernard Bigot. "This building is ITER. These steel parts are ITER. Most important of all—you are ITER!"

Along the long way there may have been doubts and sometimes discouragement. "But ITER is too important to let these feelings take hold of us. What we are working for is much bigger than we are. What is at stake with ITER—and with fusion—is energy safety for the generations to come. And energy safety is one of the first conditions for a better life for all."

With this in mind, the ITER staff (some 550 out of 650 staff members were present) closed ranks for the official photograph—a very impressive one, which conveyed the pride, commitment and enthusiasm of the men and women from 35 nations working to translate into reality "the dream of three generations of fusion physicists."

How the ITER staff grew — view slideshow below.

On 21 January 2016, 650 people are directly employed by the ITER Organization. At least 550 of them can be seen here in the Cryostat Workshop against the backdrop of the first machine components delivered to ITER.

Le premier relevé effectué à partir du maillage primaire d'ITER, ainsi que les relevés de suivi ultérieurs, ont été réalisés en utilisant une combinaison de mesures terrestres (représentées ici avec une « station totale » de marque Leica) et de mesures GPS différentielles et de niveau. On a ainsi obtenu une précision de l'ordre du millimètre.

La pluparts des éléments de de gros diamètre, tels que les bobines de champ poloïdal ou les sections du cryostat, seront manipulés par l'utilisation synchrone de quatre poutres de levage universelles raccordées à quatre crochets de 375 tonnes.

Les pylônes, hauts de 22 mètres, que l'on voit sur cette photo serviront de support à des poutrelles pesant chacune 5 tonnes. Depuis ces pylônes, des câbles achemineront le courant jusqu'à sept transformateurs de 400 kV. Les sous-stations de très haute tensions seront contrôlées à distance par Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE).

Géométrie de mesure pour le relevé des éléments d'interface d'un module de couverture. La simulation de photogrammétrie est utilisée pour prédire l'incertitude de mesure.

Onze balises ont été positionnées sur le d'ITER en 2010. Elles constituent le maillage primaire d'ITER. Deux balises temporaires supplémentaires ont été utilisées pendant les relevés pour raccourcir la distance de mesure et ainsi améliorer la précision. Un capteur GPS de marque Leica est posé sur la balise. Photo : ITER Organization (Ici, des sous-traitants de GDV Systems GmbH, Allemagne).

Les patins parasismiques ont été positionnés et ancrés au sommet des colonnes de béton. Une fois séchée, la nouvelle couche de béton prendra une couleur semblable à celle de la colonne.