22nd ITER Council
Project on track for First Plasma in 2025
25 Jun 2018
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ITER Communication
The ITER Council, ITER's governing body, met for the twenty-second time on 20 and 21 June 2018 at the ITER Organization in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, France. Council Members approved refinements to the construction strategy which will optimize the installation of components in the Tokamak Complex. With this strategy in place, the project is on track to achieve First Plasma in 2025 while adhering to overall project costs.
The ITER Council acknowledged the improved collaboration of the One-ITER team—the ITER Organization and seven Domestic Agencies—and confirmed that the project is on track to success.
Representatives from China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the United States gathered in the fifth floor Council Chamber for a two-day review of the most recent reports on organizational and technical performance. They agreed that the project continues to sustain its strong performance and fast pace. Since January 2016, ITER has achieved 33 scheduled project milestones, including the recent commissioning of the first experiment of the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility in Padua, Italy.
The Council stated that significant progress has also been made on the manufacturing of technologically challenging components such as the vacuum vessel and the toroidal field magnets. They also highlighted progress in the installation of the cryoplant and in the build-up of the magnet power supply and conversion system. Based on their review of the latest performance metrics, Council Members confirmed that project execution towards First Plasma is now over 55 percent complete.
Project execution towards First Plasma in 2025 is now over 55% complete.
The Council acknowledged the efforts undertaken by each Member to reach approval of the overall project cost through their respective government budget processes. Having completed their internal consultation procedures, China, Europe, Japan, Korea and Russia are ready to approve the 2016 Baseline.
Expressing their resolve to work together to find timely solutions to facilitate ITER's success, Council Members reaffirmed their strong belief in the value of the ITER Project to develop fusion science and technology.
From Korea
Pictured, left to right: Hyeon Gon Lee, ITER Korea Deputy Director-General, NFRI; Suk Jae Yoo, NFRI President; Won-ho Choi, Head of Delegation, Director-General Space, Nuclear and Big Science Policy Bureau, Ministry of Science and ICT; Kijung Jung, Director-General ITER Korea, NFRI.
Gyung-Su Lee, ITER Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Director-General; Eisuke Tada, ITER Relations Coordinating Officer, Deputy Director-General; Sachiko Ishizaka, ITER Council Secretary; Arun Srivastava, Council Chair; and Oleg Patarakin, Chair of the ITER Council Management Advisory Committee (left to right).
Some members of the Japanese delegation
Naomi Toda, interpreter; Yoichi Ito, Head of Delegation, Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT); Shigekazu Matsuura, Director, International Nuclear and Fusion Energy Affairs Division, Research and Development Bureau, MEXT; and Junichiro Otaka, Director, International Science Cooperation Division, Disarmament, Non-proliferation and Science Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (left to right).
Front, from left to right: CHEN Linhao, Deputy Director-General, Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Science and Technology, MOST; SUN Yuming, Minister-Counselor, Chinese Embassy in France; HUANG Wei, Head of Delegation, Vice-Minister MOST. Back row, from left to right: GUO Anna, Project Officer, ITER China, MOST; ZHU Yalan, Deputy Director, ITER China, MOST; LI Chunjing, Director, General Office, MOST; LI Wei, Deputy Director, Department of Innovation and Development, MOST; LIU Gaiqing, Third Secretary, Department of Arms Control of Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Not all members of the delegation are pictured.)
Arun Srivastava, from India, became ITER Council Chair on 1 January 2018.
From Europe
Joaquín Sánchez, Chair of the European Domestic Agency Governing Board, and Gerassimos Thomas, Head of Delegation, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy.
Thomas J. Vanek, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Fusion Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy (DOE); Steve Binkley, Head of Delegation, Acting Director of the Office of Science, US DOE; Jonathan Margolis, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Science, Space, and Health Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, US Department of State (left to right).
Members of the Russian delegation
Viacheslav Pershukov, special representative of the Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM on International and Science and Technology Projects; Igor Borovkov, Head of Delegation, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Government Executive Office of the Russian Federation; and Marina Zbaratskaya, interpreter (left to right).
ITER Director-General Bernard Bigot (right) and Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Director-General Gyung-Su Lee.
Shashank Chaturvedi, Director, Institute for Plasma Research (IPR); Mahaboob Basha Syed, India Contact Person for ITER, Department of Atomic Energy; Ujjwal Baruah, Project Manager, ITER India, IPR (left to right).