The ITER platform has all the attributes of a small town. It has landmark buildings, winding roads and large avenues, traffic lights and stop signs. It is a bustling world of people and vehicles, of projects spanning the scope of construction and industry. It is a place where 35 nations were brought together to prepare the future of our civilization. In this map, we have identified 28 buildings and facilities, some already operational, some at various stages of construction, and few not yet started. Other features—such as overhead bridges and roads—are not yet marked. In a few years, we will need an updated map to find our way on the ITER platform.  Scroll below to see other pictures taken by drone in late May 2020. 1 — Tokamak Building 2 — Diagnostics Building 3 — Tritium Building 4 — Assembly Hall 5 — Radiofrequency Building 6 — Site Services Building 7 — Cleaning Facility 8 — Cryostat Workshop 9 — Magnets workshop 10 — Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility 11 — Cryoplant12, 13 Magnet Power Conversion Buildings 14 — 400 kV Electrical Switchyard (ITER Organization) 15 —  400 kV Electrical Switchyard (RTE, Réseau de transport d'électricité, France) 16 — Heat Removal Zone/Cooling Tower Zone 17 — Future location of the Control Buildings 18 — Future location of the neutral beam injection power supply 19 — Future location of the Hot Cell Facility 20 — Contractors Area 21 — Contractors elevated parking lot 22 — ITER Organization Headquarters 23 — Tokamak Assembly Preparatory Building (in construction) 24 — Assembly workshop 25 — Poloidal Field Coil Facility extension for cold tests 26 — Temporary storage facility 27 — Temporary storage facility 28 — Temporary storage facility C — Cryostat lower and upper cylinder (cocooned)  

ITER construction planners and coordinators are using 4D planning methods to prepare for activities performed on critical machine components in the congested environment of the ITER Assembly Hall. All large machine components will transit through the ITER Assembly Hall—entering through double doors on the south end, pausing at a laydown area for preparation or pre-assembly, and ultimately traversing the length of the building on the cables of the overhead bridge cranes for installation inside the Tokamak pit.   "In the months and years ahead, some of the largest machine components will be going through the Assembly Hall," says Brian Macklin, who leads the Construction Department's Ex-Vessel Assembly Group. "Planning for the routing of a component through the Assembly Building is not just a matter of bringing it from point A to point B—we must also take into account other components arriving at the same time, the availability of the overhead cranes, space constraints in the Assembly Hall, and other activities inside the building."   Avoiding bottlenecks requires the integration of detailed schedule information for each work package—what is arriving when, and what preparation or pre-assembly activities must be carried out in the Assembly Hall—with 3D models of the relevant components, tooling and assembly spaces.   "4D scheduling is the result of merging 3D data with scheduling data," says Lynton Sutton, who is the contractor doing the 4D planning for Macklin's group through his company Brigantium Engineering. "Using 4D planning, we are able to optimize and validate the coordination planning of different work packages and the use of space; we have also used 4D to model different scenarios to aide in decision-making. 4D has been a vital tool for construction sequence visualization—enabling us to identify critical risks and clashes that may have been difficult to spot using traditional planning method alone. In addition, we are able to create video animations using 4D, which are valuable tools for communication."   Having accurate, up-to-date, configuration-controlled input is critical. Sutton has developed an internal process for accessing validated CAD models from the ITER Organization Design Office and associated schedule data from the workface planners of the MOMENTUM consortium—the Construction Management-as-Agent responsible for the day-to-day planning of ITER assembly.     The group used 4D to model the recent cryostat base installation operation (click on the animation above), and is currently working on scenarios for the next large components to enter the Assembly Hall—the cryostat lower cylinder, the lower cryostat thermal shield, and vacuum vessel Sector #6.   "4D planning allows us to display complex sequences in a visual form that is immediately understandable by all," says Macklin. "It's hard to overstate how powerful this tool can be for avoiding clashes and rework, and for bringing all teams to the same understanding of a space allocation or sequencing problem, leading to faster resolution."

On 6 March 2020, the Korean company KEPCO Engineering & Construction completed manufacture of the first set of cubicles that constitute the ITER central interlock system—the control system designed for machine protection. Much like what is used in data centres, the cubicles manufactured (and later delivered) by KEPCO are rack structures of a standard size, containing servers and storage units—and running software. Ultimately, they will be installed in the main Control Building.   "We are using standard ITER cubicles, which are more than two metres tall," says Alvaro Marqueta, Interlock Systems Responsible Officer. "We have a variety of technologies inside—programmable logic controllers, IT servers, and field programmable gate arrays."   KEPCO didn't work alone on this project, which began in September 2013—South Korea's National Fusion Research Institute and the firm Mobiis also helped. In addition, most of the ITER Members provided engineering support, prototyping and testing to help with the development of the system, while the ITER central interlock system team provided the overall specifications.   Protecting the ITER investment   The central interlock system and a number of local elements (called plant interlock systems) make up the ITER interlock system, which protects the ITER investment by ensuring that no failure of a key system can damage machine integrity or availability. The main sources of risk are the superconducting magnets and associated systems, plasma heating and fuelling equipment, cooling systems, and the plasma itself.   "The local controllers only have a local scope," says Marqueta. "But the central interlock has a global view: it monitors the local systems and makes decisions accordingly. When an event that occurs in one plant system affects others, the central interlock system sends commands to the associated plant interlock systems. While these decisions are made quickly and automatically, the central interlock system also reports status to operators in the main control room, who may override with corrective actions."   The final validation of the central interlock operation screens and functionality was performed in Seoul by the ITER team and the Korean supplier. Dedicated networks connect the plant interlock systems to the central interlock system. Two separate architectures have been designed to service different kinds of events, depending largely on the response time required. Not surprisingly, the two independent infrastructures are referred to as slow and fast. The slow architecture, based on programmable logic controllers (PLCs), is for functions that need response times between 100 ms and 1 s. "Two crucial PLC features we use are called 'F-H,' for fail-safe and high availability," says Marqueta. "If a PLC fails, it will fail in a predictable way into a know state, which is a safe state. In other words, they will not fail into a random state. High availability means that two PLCs work together in tandem; if one fails, the other can take over."   The fast architecture is needed for events that require a reaction time in the range of 100-300 ms. This includes plasma-related interlock events such as a heating system stoppage or a disruption mitigation system trigger. The fast architecture is based on field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), which offer a faster response than PLC. An important component of the fast architecture is the plasma protection module, which is in charge of interlock functions relating to the plasma.   In addition to the slow and fast architectures, a third architecture was designed to directly connect all subsystems involved in the powering and protection of magnets, with no central coordination. This third arrangement, called the hardwired architecture, is used to synchronize all the systems involved in a fast discharge of the superconducting coils. Hardwired loops are connected directly to sensors and actuators of different systems in order to maximize integrity and simplicity.   Coordinating all the components   Most of the components of the interlock system are provided as in-kind contributions from the ITER Domestic Agencies, who in turn contract the work to suppliers. The result is a set of computers and controllers from as many as 35 different countries that have to work in concert to form the crucial ITER interlock system. The job of the central interlock system team is to make sure it all works.   "Not only are we responsible for the design of the central interlock systems," says Marqueta, "but we also have to ensure interoperability. To do this, we establish guidelines for the development of plant interlock systems—and we provide support as needed."   As the pieces come together in southern France, the interlock team tests each of the systems to make sure they work to standard. Eventually they will test all the components together to verify they interoperate to a level that will ultimately protect the ITER investment.

The 28th edition of the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2020) has been postponed. Originally scheduled to take place from 12 to 17 October 2020 in Nice, France, the conference organizers have announced new dates: 10 to 15 May 2021. The venue for the event has not changed. The IAEA Fusion Energy Conference is the world's largest conference on fusion energy. Sponsored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and organized regularly since 1961, it attracted over 1,000 fusion scientists and engineers at its last edition, in 2018.  The 28th edition of the IAEA Fusion Energy Conference (FEC 2020) will be hosted jointly by the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and the ITER Organization. For information and important dates, visit FEC2020 or the dedicated page on the IAEA website.