High hopes

The year 2010 started off with lots of hopes and expectations, and we will be working harder than ever before. Many of our contracts last year were delayed for various reasons; in the early weeks of 2010, our first priority was to bring them to conclusion. As this task progressed, other important milestones have been met in our Department.

In one significant development, we released the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH) v.5 at the beginning of February. This is an important step towards standardization of the plant system control systems. We were also able to release the first version of the _Ho_/newsline/119/1733_HoX_CODAC core system_Hx_. Our goal is now to familiarize the ITER community with these in order to facilitate the development of compatible control systems for the plant systems which are being developed within the Domestic Agencies. This would optimize our common effort in many ways.

In other important news, following the approval by the ITER Council in November last year, the realization of the Neutral Beam Test Facility PRIMA in Padua, Italy is now officially part of the ITER Baseline. The Consorzio RFX is in the process of finalizing details before construction of the facility begins. ITER tasks for this facility are related to the design of various components for the beamline.

These tasks have been launched and regular progress monitoring meetings are held. The high voltage power supply for the facility will be contributed by the Japanese Domestic Agency through a Procurement Arrangement that is being prepared. Issues related to Italian safety regulations and transportation of the power supply were recently discussed at Padua, with the participation of the ITER Organization and the Japanese Domestic Agency.

You can learn more about the test facility in an accompanying article in this issue of the ITER Newsline.