ITER Machine Assembly - Status and Plans

Full text: Assembly of the ITER Machine aims at minimizing magnet error fields, ensuring alignment of the magnet system, and in-vessel components, ensuring compliance with the many code, QA and other technical requirements all within very demanding schedule and budget constraints. As well as the basic machine, ITER consists of many associated plant systems installed within various buildings. To ensure safe working and allow optimisation of labour resources, tools and schedule overall responsibility for the coordination of all plant installation, and also the execution of installation tasks under IO responsibility, is centralised. Whole lifecycle management of plant and components from installation to operation and maintenance is being implemented through Integrated Logistics Support, a strategy developed in military and large industrial projects. This strategy is fundamental in helping ensure the reliability of ITER and therefore demonstrate the feasibility of fusion. To support assembly and installation there will be several hundreds of purpose-built tools, the designs of which are progressing. As well as the above interfaces, tool design is driven by component requirements, assembly sequences and constraints and the need to maintain the project schedule. As well as these technical challenges, the assembly of the ITER defines the crucial latter part of the critical path of the project schedule. It therefore drives the start of Integrated Commissioning and ultimately the date of first plasma. Details will be given of how the assembly schedule has been challenged and modelled to identify near-critical path tasks which increase risk. (author)