F4E completes the ITER Radio Frequency Building

The ITER construction site has gone through an impressive transformation. Many of the buildings and infrastructures that will host and support the world's largest fusion experiment are erected. The progress, captured by the aerial views, results from the involvement of many European contractors, coordinated by Fusion for Energy (F4E).

One of the latest signs of progress is the absence of several of the tall cranes on-site. They were dismantled after Europe finished civil engineering works in some key facilities like the Tokamak complex.

At the end of summer, the completion of the Radio Frequency Heating Building, in collaboration with Demathieu Bard, marked yet another milestone. Eight years after the start of construction, F4E and ITER Organization signed the handover of the facility. The gesture could seem like a mere formality, but it took a lot of technical skills and problem-solving to complete.

Aerial view of the ITER site. The Radio Frequency Heating Building is adjacent to the big Assembly Hall (in the centre of the image), on the right. ©ITER Organization

In fact, the 3-storey Radio Frequency Heating Building (25 m in height, 50 m in length) had its very own complexity. The edifice will house the equipment for electron cyclotron heating, one of the critical systems that will raise the plasma temperatures to spark the fusion reaction. The top floor will host the wave generators (2.5-metre-high gyrotrons), fed by the power supplies located on the first two floors.

The high voltage systems and the gyrotrons come with stringent electrical and fire protection codes and norms. After the structure was finished, safety became the priority. The teams of F4E, ITER Organization and Demathieu Bard, worked hard, backed by high level expert analysis, to ensure meeting these requirements within the pressing timeline for completion.

Romaric Darbour, F4E's Deputy Programme Manager for Buildings and Site Management, celebrates the success: "Thanks to the excellent collaboration with our industrial partners and the F4E and IO heating and current drive teams, we managed to find optimal solutions to overcome all our technical challenges". "The Radio Frequency building has provided us with invaluable experience to improve protocols in nuclear construction", confirms Sébastien Berne, Nuclear Activities Director of Demathieu Bard.

In line with the updated baseline, ITER Organization has also revised the heating mix for the device, increasing the power of electron cyclotron heating up to 80 gyrotrons. To house them, engineers are planning two additional buildings in the vicinities of the Tokamak complex.

Meanwhile, European constructors are making progress in other areas on the ITER. At 5 m below ground, the SNEF-Ferrovial consortium completed the energisation of the Load Center providing power to the Control building. The technicians delicately pulled 36 km of cables through the galleries to connect the building with power supplies and other systems located elsewhere in ITER. It was a less visible but efficient achievement for F4E, that launched the call only one year before.

A technician examines the cable racks in one of the galleries below the ITER site in 2021. ©ITER Organization

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