Johan Berte visits the Institut Paul Emile Victor (IPEV)
05.09.2005
While the base's conceptual design moves on IPF proceeds with visiting a number of Polar institutes. IPEV, the French institute, was intersting to visit because it has a long history of construction and logistics in the Antarctic.
The French activities take place in another area of Antarctica and their stations are located at the coast or on the high plateau (1200 km inland !). These are circumstances that differ considerably from the Utsteinen construction site selected for the new base. Nevertheless, the Concordia station (also known as Dome C) built with the Italians is a rare example of an integrated and conceptual approach to Antarctic building.
Johan Berte, IPF's project manager, was received by Patrice Godon, head of logistics of IPEV. Apart from the logistic operations his team is also responsible for the design and construction of the different buildings. IPEV has also developed a specific transport system used for their over-land raids to Concordia. The equipment has been optimized over years and the organization and planning of the transports has been fine-tuned.
The field performance of the Concordia waste water treatment system that recycles upto 90% of the waste water produced was also quite interesting.
