an hour from Marseille, lost in the scrubland, the Iter site is familiar with science fiction, halfway between “Objectif Lune” and Blake and Mortimer. It is here, in Saint-Paul-lez-Durance (Bouches-du-Rhône), that the European Union, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Russia and also the United States are about to experiment "the energy of the future", resulting from the nuclear fusion of hydrogen.
Launched ten years ago, the pharaonic construction site at 18 billion euros, for which a hill had to be purely and simply leveled above the CEA in Cadarache, and where 2,600 people work in the greatest secrecy, is making great strides not. At the end of a real odyssey, this Saturday he received his heaviest piece ever received, the PF6.
Started ten years ago, the Pharaonic construction site at 18 billion euros, for which a hill had to be leveled above the CEA in Cadarache and where 2,600 people work in the greatest secrecy, is advancing rapidly. At the end of a real odyssey, this Saturday he received his heaviest piece ever received, the PF6.
This magnet of more than 400 t and 10.5 m in diameter, accompanied by five other parts, will constitute the magnetic cage which will make it possible to raise the temperature to 150 million degrees, or 10 times that of the Sun, in the largest vacuum chamber of the world, enclosed in a tokamak 60 m high.
A 400-ton piece from Shanghai
Made in China in the city of Hefei, the PF6, which arrived on site on Friday, was loaded onto a freighter in late April in Shanghai. The large seaport of Marseille has manufactured a landing ramp that can support 880 t to receive the package. The exceptional convoy finally took the 106 km of the “Iter road” for three weeks, a route specially built for the transport of these gigantic pieces, at a rate of 5 km / h.
“We are on the right track. The arrival of this magnet is a new step ”, rejoices Bernard Bigot, the general administrator of Iter Organization, who estimates to have carried out 70% of the building site. “The principle is that each Iter partner contributes in kind. We therefore receive coins from all over the world. We have just welded and fixed a part delivered by India, of 1250 t, which we installed with an accuracy of less than 3 mm. This shows the level of technological and technical competence that has been reached. "
The dream of clean and renewable energy
The objective is clearly displayed: “Pave the way for the exploitation and control of a new energy, the fusion of hydrogen, both clean and renewable. During the containment, work continued on the site in slow motion. An audit on the possible effects of the pandemic on the calendar of this global Meccano, made up of more than a million pieces of all sizes and from all origins, should be made in November.
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The port of Fos-sur-Mer should welcome on July 15 a new part, also out of the ordinary (600 t for 1,350 m3), one of the nine sectors of the vacuum chamber, this time shipped by Korea.