Consortium Awarded Architect-Engineering Contract for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Engage consortium, consisting of British, French and Spanish companies, has been awarded the architect-engineering contract for the building and civil infrastructure for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project to be developed in Cadarache, France.

The consortium consists of the design and engineering consultancy firm WS Atkins plc (LSE:ATK) (Epsom, England), Assystem AS (EPA:ASY) (Paris, France), the Iosis Group (Montreuil Cedex, France) and the Empresarios Agrupados (Madrid, Spain).

The estimated 150 million euro ($202 million) contract, reportedly one of the largest architect-engineering contracts ever awarded in Europe, was signed between the Engage consortium and Fusion for Energy (F4E) (Barcelona, Spain).

F4E was created in 2007 for a period of 35 years under the Euratom Treaty. F4E will be responsible for all the technical buildings for the ITER project. Under the scope of the contract, the consortium will work closely with F4E for the entire period of construction, from initial design work until final sign-off for the project.

The work under the project represents about 1.7 million hours to be spread over eight years until 2018. The work involves the design and construction of the buildings, infrastructure and power supplies distribution. More than 230 designers and engineers will be working on the project at peak activity times.

The majority of the work will take place at the Cadarache site in southern France, although some of the specialized design work will be undertaken at the offices of the Engage consortium partners in England, France and Spain.

Because the reactor will be constructed in France, the project must comply with French requirements for nuclear and non-nuclear buildings. To ensure this, F4E has also signed a health and safety protection coordination contract and a legal inspection services contract, worth a combined 9 million euros ($12 million) with Apave Group (Paris) to review the design, create a health and safety plan, and follow up the work throughout construction.

ITER is an international cooperative research project designed to demonstrate and explore the technical and commercial feasibility of harnessing fusion power, the same process that powers the stars and the sun. The project was begun in 1985 as a collaboration between the E.U., the former Soviet Union, the United States and Japan. Over time, other nations joined the project and now the members of the international venture include China, India, South Korea, and the Russian Federation, which replaced the Soviet Union.

At a meeting in 2005, it was agreed that almost half the financial funding of the estimated 10 billion euro ($13.5 billion) project would be covered by the E.U., with the non-European participants supplying the remainder in equal parts. However, after considerable discussions concerning the location of the site, an agreement was reached under which the E.U. will contribute four-elevenths (36.4%) of the industrial costs, Japan will contribute two-elevenths (18.2%), and the five remaining countries each will contribute 1/11 (9.1%). In return, Japan will supply two-elevenths of the Cadarache research staff and will be entitled to two-elevenths of the construction contracts.

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