They have been chosen from engineering and construction departments at ITER, the European Domestic Agency buildings team, contractors, suppliers, and the Domestic Agencies. A core team of about eighty people who, while remaining under the responsibility of their original line management, are sharing office space near the construction site in order to perform "joint integration work"—that is, to ensure that i's have been dotted and t's crossed before the large-scale assembly and installation of plant systems begins in the Tokamak Complex.
Formed in March 2018 by the ITER Director-General, the HIT—for Holistic Integration Team—has been given the role of "collaborative system design integrator," says coordinator Miikka Kotamaki. "We are in charge of delivering a clash-free design and optimized system installation sequences for every area in the Tokamak Complex."
The HIT team works by area (i.e., by building and level), and assesses all available system design elements for completeness, consistency and constructability. The group has developed an "integration lifecycle" that it works through to ensure that all issues have been resolved (see below). "The integration cycle is a kind of '
Snakes and Ladders' template, based on the previously tried-and-tested model of the Buildings Infrastructure and Power Supplies (
BIPS) Project Team," says Deputy Coordinator Roger James Holt. "We use it to make sure that all 'ladders' are climbed at the right time and 'snakes' avoided." (More on the integration lifecycle
here.)