Montreal: SNC-Lavalin announced January 31 that its Atkins business has been awarded a five-year extension for its role as Architect Engineering for ITER, the international nuclear fusion energy project being built near Marseille, France.
Atkins is responsible for the design and construction oversight of all the buildings, services and infrastructure of the site, which is under construction in the south of France. The contract is within SNCL Engineering Services. Atkins is part of the Engage consortium, consisting of French groups Assystem and Egis as well as Spanish group Empresarios Agrupados, which will continue working on the project until 2025.
The companies will work on the design, construction oversight and coordination/integration for all 39 buildings, services (including HVAC, electrical supplies, C&I, fire safety, mechanical handling) as well as the site-wide infrastructure (roads, networks, galleries) – all part of the scope under Fusion for Energy (F4E), the European Union’s organisation managing Europe’s contribution to ITER.
A cutaway of the ITER reactor core.
“We’re honoured to continue to be a key contributor to one of the most ambitious carbon-free, sustainable energy projects in the world,” said Sandy Taylor, President, Nuclear, SNC-Lavalin. “This contract renewal demonstrates our client’s trust in our proven abilities on the project. Thirty-five nations are collaborating at ITER 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 and based on the same principle that powers our Sun and stars.”
“As part of the Engage consortium, Atkins has been working for the last 10 years on ITER,” said Christophe Junillon, Market Director, Nuclear New Build, Atkins. “The five-year extension and contract renewal from F4E is a testament to the hard work and the collaborative effort of the teams involved in this genuinely ground-breaking project and we’re thrilled to continue our significant involvement.”