Industry wall honours the companies building ITER
The ITER tokamak, with its millions of components and unprecedented technical specifications, is the physical realization of hundreds of engineering breakthroughs across multiple disciplines. While ITER’s plasma physicists and design engineers have been largely responsible for these specifications, it is the companies contracted to the ITER Organization and its Domestic Agencies that have been responsible for the breakthroughs.
To honour these companies, ITER has developed a “wall of industry,” installed on the 5th floor corridor leading to the ITER Council room, lined with engraved metal plaques showing the companies that are building ITER.
Both the European Domestic Agency, Fusion for Energy, responsible for contributing about 45% of the ITER facility, and the ITER Organization, responsible for assembling and commissioning the machine as well as many of its own procurements, were asked to contribute plaques representing 50 supplier companies. The non-European Domestic Agencies, representing China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States, were asked to contribute 25 company plaques each.
The results are impressive. Walking the corridor is a global tour of company names, technical components, and areas of expertise, but also a tour of languages, cultures, and the countries participating in ITER on three continents. Some companies are global leaders and technology powerhouses known across industry. Others are obscure—not at all household names, but possessing a unique technical or logistical expertise that filled an ITER need. In effect, the plaque corridor is a virtual fusion supply chain.
With the rise of private sector investment in fusion, this ITER contribution—the creation of a fusion supply chain—is increasingly seen to represent “current” value to many other fusion initiatives. The value cuts both ways: now that ITER has begun engaging with private sector fusion initiatives, the companies that supplied ITER technology may find new markets where their expertise will be sought. These possibilities will be one of the focus areas of the 2025 ITER Business Forum to be hosted by Agence Iter France in Marseille, France, in April.