How a tiny widget waylaid the world’s biggest science experiment

At the construction site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in southern France in 2016. — bohdan.melekh/Visualhunt/CC BY-SA

It was one of the smallest pieces in the world’s biggest science project that turned into the most vexing coronavirus supply-chain hurdle for Bernard Bigot.

The 70-year-old physicist is responsible for making sure the US$22bil (RM94.55bil) ITER fusion reactor in France starts running on time. His machine, using more than a million pieces sourced from 35 countries, was supposed to begin testing in five years – at least that was the timeline before the pandemic hit.