March 28TH 2020
Passing an ITER Council milestone is always an achievement. Passing this milestone at this moment is much more than that: it is a demonstration that, despite the constraints imposed by the public health context, the ITER Organization, the European Domestic Agency and their contractors are determined to keep moving forward and to remain on schedule.
ITER Council milestone #50, which was successfully achieved two days ahead of schedule late on 28 March, is of considerable significance for the project, as it opens the way for the launch of the machine assembly phase.
Three actions were required: first, the completion of the crane hall structure; second, the removal of the temporary wall separating the buildings; and finally, the verification of the overhead crane load path in the Tokamak Building.
The last operation, both spectacular and delicate, required validating the full 170-metre-long runway of the double bridge crane—from the entrance of the Assembly Hall, all the way to the opposite end of the newly created crane hall and back.
It was a display of Titans, with no less than 1,000 tonnes of steel and concrete test loads attached to the giant hoists of the bridge crane.
Initiated at 8:00 a.m., the operation lasted well into the night and was only considered completed when the crane and its loads had returned to the Assembly Hall and were secured.
By then Saturday had turned into Sunday, but 31 March—the official target for ITER Council milestone #50*—was still 48 hours away.
The crane and its loads moved slowly, taking long pauses at strategic locations: at the “seismic link” between the two buildings, at the threshold of the Tokamak Building, over the protruding lid of the Assembly Pit …
With the temporary wall between the Assembly Hall and Tokamak Building removed, one could take in, for the first time, the full theatre of future assembly operations—a huge open space that even dwarfs the 20-metre-high vacuum vessel sector sub-assembly tools.
It was an awesome view that conveyed the unique size, complexity and beauty of ITER.
WELL DONE TO ALL IN THIS VERY DIFFICULT TIME
The 2023 edition of the World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) will be held at Paris-Nord Villepinte from 28 to 30 November 2023
REEL is proud to have contributed again to the activities of Flamanville 3 by providing particularly robust clamps.
REEL Aluminium team will be at the International Aluminium conference at Stands 8 and 9 in Vedanta Meadows Auditorium.
Our teams wish you all the best for this new year.