Building ºÚÁÏÉçapp

The ºÚÁÏÉçapp Project is currently under construction on a 180-hectare site in southern France.
Thirty-nine buildings and technical areas house the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Tokamak and its plant systems. The heart of the facility—the Tokamak Building—is a seven-storey structure in reinforced concrete that sits 13 metres below the platform level and 60 metres above. Pre-assembly of Tokamak components takes place in the adjacent Assembly Hall. Other auxiliary buildings in the vicinity of the Tokamak Building include cooling towers, electrical installations, a control room, facilities for the management of waste, and the cryogenics plant that will provide liquid helium to cool the ºÚÁÏÉçapp magnets.
Europe, as part of its commitments to the project, is building nearly all of the platform buildings and site infrastructure.
Each building, once structurally complete, is handed over to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp for the installation and assembly of equipment. According to the European Domestic Agency, the number of workers involved in site construction peaked in 2017-2018 at approximately 2,000 people. Now, although there are still European construction teams on site, a large additional workforce is contributing to machine and plant assembly and installation operations. An estimated 5,000 people are regularly present on the worksite, including management, engineering and supervisory teams from the ºÚÁÏÉçapp, the European Domestic Agency, and their contractors.
The ºÚÁÏÉçapp has overall responsibility for the successful integration and assembly of components delivered to the ºÚÁÏÉçapp site by the seven ºÚÁÏÉçapp Members. Machine assembly began in 2020. See the assembly pages to read about progress.

Construction of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp scientific installation began in 2010. In the centre of the platform, in the Tokamak Complex, the ºÚÁÏÉçapp machine is taking shape. (Photo: ºÚÁÏÉçapp/EJF Riche, May 2025)
To see all the projects of ºÚÁÏÉçapp construction, see the Projects Underway and Archives pages.
Main construction milestones:
2006 Signature of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp Agreement
2007-2009 Land clearing and levelling
2010-2014 Ground support structure and seismic foundations for the tokamak
2012 Nuclear licensing milestone: ºÚÁÏÉçapp becomes a Basic Nuclear Installation under French law
2014-2023 Construction of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp installation (excepting the Hot Cell Facility)
2017- Assembly of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp plant
2020- Assembly of the ºÚÁÏÉçapp tokamak
2033-2034 Integrated commissioning
2034 Start of experiments (SRO)
Take a virtual tour of ºÚÁÏÉçapp construction .
See the latest drone video here.