Year of the Ox

In the oriental calendar 2009 is the year of the Ox, which is regarded as being the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. May I wish success to all those who are involved in the project in 2009.

The Department of Central Engineering & Plant Support (CEP) was busy in 2008 building up manpower, reviewing the baseline design, estimating resource requirements, etc. CEP is currently responsible for 31 procurement packages totaling some EUR 900 million across various plant support systems.

The basic plant support systems such as the electric power supply, the cooling water system, the cryogenic system and the hot cell should be ready for use before the assembly work starts on site. Therefore, Procurement Arrangements for both the cooling water system and electric power distribution systems will be signed in 2009. In parallel, to accommodate the recent design changes and regulatory requirements, recalculation of user requirements for several main systems is in progress. The result will be utilized in finalizing the design of plant support systems.

Last December, the first kick-off meeting of the pilot Integrated Product Team (IPT) for the power supply was held with the participation of ITER Organization and Domestic Agency experts. Key tasks were identified at the meeting and six task leaders were selected for their successful implementation. There will be a regular pilot IPT meeting every month and weekly task-level meetings to check the progress and facilitate collective problem solving. The relevant experts from both the ITER Organization and the Domestic Agencies are focused on the success of the electrical power supply. Efforts will be concentrated on the areas of AC/DC converter technology, standardization of power distribution and the integrated power control system for the ITER magnets. Moreover, a dedicated expert group will soon be operational to review the baseline design of AC/DC converter under the framework of the IPT for the next six months.