ITER is well underway

3 Dec 2012 - ITER Communication

The Eleventh ITER Council convened last week at the ITER site for a two-day meeting that brought together the high-level representatives of the seven ITER Members.

The Eleventh ITER Council convened on 28-29 November 2012 at ITER Headquarters. The next ITER Council meeting is scheduled to take place in Japan in June 2013.

As approximately 100 people took their places in the solemn setting of the new Council Room, Director-General Osamu Motojima welcomed the participants, adding, "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Members, in particular Europe, the Host Party, and Agence ITER France for providing the project with the ITER Organization Headquarters building where staff is nearly fully installed."

The Council noted the strong measures that have been taken by the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies to realize strategic schedule milestones and to develop new corrective measures for critical systems such as buildings, the vacuum vessel, the cryostat, and the superconducting magnets. Delegates urged further corrective actions to improve schedule execution and to seek additional savings.

Delegates welcomed the integrated project management approach proposed by the ITER Organization to enhance collaboration between the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies, an approach, according to Director-General Motojima, to "cooperate even more closely for the implementation of ITER."

The ITER Council also celebrated the recent major licensing milestone for ITER, the strong pace of construction activities at the ITER site, and the manufacturing activities well underway in all ITER Members.

In the wings of the Eleventh ITER Council, several important signatures took place. The ITER Organization signed the contracts for six diagnostic and measurement systems with the US Domestic Agency, and a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Domestic Agency for cooperation in the procurement of diagnostic port plug support structures from a common manufacturer (see article in this issue).

In addition, a Procurement Arrangement amendment was signed for the Power Supply System for ITER's neutral beam injectors. The original Procurement Arrangement, concluded with the European Domestic Agency in July 2009 covered the power supplies for the two heating neutral beams planned for ITER. Since then, the construction of the Neutral Beam Test Facility in Padua, Italy has been decided—a facility designed to test ITER's high-powered neutral beams in advance of operation.

According to the terms of the amendment, the European Domestic Agency will receive the credit to provide the power supplies to the two experiments of the Neutral Beam Test Facility, MITICA and SPIDER. An ITER-scale power supply will be collaboratively provided to MITICA by the European and Japanese Domestic Agencies; a small power supply will be provided to SPIDER by the European and Indian Domestic Agencies.

Read the Press Releases in English and in French.

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