A wide angle on progress
17 Apr 2017
Workers are preparing to pour the last segments of the Tokamak Building L1 slab ... laying rebar, positioning anchor plates, setting up scaffolding. Visitors to ITER's Open Doors Day in May will be able to walk out over the finished concrete (L1 is the equivalent of ground level).
Whether captured from the top of a crane or from a drone hovering at an altitude of a few dozen metres, the ITER site is always spectacular.
2017-04-13 - Once the Tokamak Building rises to meet the Assembly Hall, the temporary wall between the two will be removed to create an open space of nearly 200 metres in length. In the centre of it all is the concrete "well" where the machine will be assembled from bottom to top.
2017-04-13 - Turning away from the Tokamak Complex worksite to the northeast, contractor staging zones are visible and—in the background—the V-shaped ITER Headquarters building. A bridge is already in place to connect Headquarters to the Control Building where, in the future, operators will manage daily operational campaigns.
2017-04-13 - Each zone of the southern part of the platform is reserved for a specific building project or technical area—underground drainage works, electrical infrastructure (far end), cryoplant (partially clad at left), magnet power conversion (centre). The Diagnostics Building is just visible at the foot of the crane.
2017-04-13 - The full kilometre-long ITER platform is captured by drone in April. In the triangle seen in the lower left of the photo, a new storage area is planned. Photo: ITER Organization/EJF Riche
2017-04-13 - The European Domestic Agency is concentrating resources on the highly technical ITER bioshield (centre circle) in order to respect key schedule milestones; three hundred people are currently working on this zone in two shifts. The Tokamak Complex is nevertheless rising all around the bioshield—note in particular the Diagnostics Building (at right) where half of the L2 level slab is already in place.
2017-04-13 - At the entrance to the ITER site (top left) a yellow warehouse stands ready to receive component deliveries. The zone on the platform reserved for the Control Building (top, left of the crane) is used for the moment to store construction materials; at centre right the cooling tower and cooling basin area represents a small square. All of the concrete needed for ITER construction is produced in the double batching plant located on site (top right).