In the South of France (Bouches-du-Rhône department in Provence), 35 countries are collaborating to build the world’s largest tokamak, a magnetic fusion device that has been designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) will be the first fusion device to produce net energy and will also be the first to maintain fusion for long periods of time.
ArcelorMittal Construction will be taking part in the ITER project, wherein the wall cladding will be taken care of by the company. Five buildings are included in this project, of which the heart of the facility is the Tokamak Building – a seven-storey structure in reinforced concrete. For the façade, the architect chose to combine two long-life materials, stainless steel and coated Hairexcel® dark grey steel. Performance, protection, appearance and total cost effectiveness are the factors that have been taken into consideration when Hairexcel® was selected.
A first layer of steel liner trays is bolted to the steel structure of the building, then a 130 mm rockwool insulation is added on top of it. On the top of the three layers, the 15 m long steel profiled TRAPEZA® 5.183.39 stainless high gloss and dark grey prepainted Hairexcel® are installed. First Plasma is scheduled for December 2025, this will be the official start of ITER operation.
